


The Lost Colony

by xXdreameaterXx



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 38,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21951934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXdreameaterXx/pseuds/xXdreameaterXx
Summary: An ordinary adventure at the end of an exhausting day was all Clara had wanted, but she should have known by now that there was nothing ordinary about travelling with the Doctor. As they embark on a new journey several hundred years into the past, Clara has no idea that they are about to uncover one of the greatest mysteries in history. But as usual, there is a fine line between mystery and danger.
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald
Comments: 44
Kudos: 60





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello guys and welcome back! I have to admit that I completely forgot I had this story finished and ready to post because I was so absorbed in starting my new job well. I hope you'll accept this Christmas gift as my apology :D

Something was out there. The little girl stood still and pricked her ears, hoping to catch the sound that had previously startled her once again, but the woods were quiet - and eerily so. A cool breeze had been ruffling her hair all day and she felt the absence of it like a burning sensation on her skin. The chirping of birds that she had grown so accustomed to right up to the point that she could no longer hear them had stopped. There was no rustling in the leaves, no snapping twigs, nothing apart from her own breathing and the heartbeat that was growing louder in her chest.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The girl turned around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the boy she had been playing with, but Michael was nowhere to be seen. She hadn’t expected to find him. A game of hide and seek deep in the forest, that was what they had been up to all morning. Now, the girl was alone and scared and wanted nothing more than not to be any of these things. She turned around on the spot, hoping to catch a glimpse of her friend, but all there was to see was the forest, seemingly empty in its full spring bloom.

Only that it wasn’t. The girl could feel it all around her, she could feel it in the tingling that spread through her body, reaching up to her fingertips.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

There was something in the air and it had her surrounded. No matter where she looked, it was always there and not there. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it closing in on her. It was almost like being under water, a kind of pressure that made her think the sky might fall down on her at any moment. It was now or never.

“Michael?!” the little girl called out.

No answer. It was as if the words didn’t even travel past her lips. Then suddenly, they did. The sounds came back, crashing down on her like an unstoppable force, like a wave that had been held back for too long. It was all there. The wind. The birds. The rustling leaves.

The girl turned around on the spot and ran. Among the trees, she could already see the tall, wooden fence, the wall they had built around their homes and it was coming closer.  
Her thumping heartbeat seemed to stop when she noticed the gate and that it was closing, probably before she had a chance to reach it. Oh, she was going to be in trouble.

“Wait!” the girl called out as soon as she could make out the man by the wooden gate.

He stopped and as her steps slowed down, she recognised him as the blacksmith, a nice, elderly man who had forged a doll for her from leftover scraps, but when the girl came to a halt next to him, his usually friendly face was twisted in a deep, dark frown.

“You’re not supposed to be out there on your own and you know that,” the man told her, his voice firm as he lifted a finger in warning.

The girl gasped for air and it took her a moment to regain her speech. The strange event in the woods had knocked the breath out of her.

“I… I wasn’t alone,” she confessed eventually. “Michael was with me. We were playing hide and seek.”

Something in the man’s gaze softened, but it only lasted for a brief moment when the realisation struck him. “Is Michael still out there?” the blacksmith wanted to know.

The little girl answered with a shrug of her shoulders. “I couldn’t find him. I thought maybe he had already come back.”

The old man blinked, but he didn’t reply and that was how the girl knew that no one had come through the gates since they had sneaked out of the town’s boundaries together. They would have noticed. Probably. Maybe. Yet if he was afraid, the man didn’t show it.

“Go to Michael’s parents and see if he’s at home,” he told her. “I’ll keep the gate open for a while longer in case he isn’t.”

“What if he doesn’t come back?” the little girl asked without meaning to. She wasn’t sure where the question had come from, but she realised that it had been on her mind ever since the strange silence in the woods.

What if Michael never came back? What if they had gotten to him? She couldn’t tell the old man, she couldn’t tell his parents. They would never believe what she had witnessed.

The blacksmith placed a careful hand on her shoulder and smiled, but something about the way he did it struck her as odd. It didn’t look all that sincere.

“We’ll find him,” the man said and gave her back a gentle slap, telling her to run off and find the boy’s parents.

And she did, dreading the moment she would step through the door and find that Michael was still missing because, in her heart, the little girl already knew.

Michael wasn’t going to come back.


	2. Chapter 1

The school bell rang through the air, heralding the end of a long and exhausting day for Clara as well as her students - but it was also a Wednesday. With a smile on her face, she gathered her papers, stuffed them into her satchel and then turned to give the whiteboard a thorough cleaning before she headed outside. Wednesday was her favourite day of the entire week, something her colleagues clearly couldn’t understand, judging from the look on their faces when they still had two whole days left before the next weekend and lie-in. For Clara, it was different. 

Every Wednesday the Doctor picked her up from school - or parked the TARDIS in her tiny bedroom - to whisk her away on a new adventure that might last a few hours or a few weeks, always depending on how much trouble they managed to get into. Afterwards, there was usually time for her to wind down and have a good night’s sleep in the middle of the week. _The perks of knowing a Time Lord_ , Clara thought with a grin.

Walking along the school corridor, Clara already heard the familiar sound, something between a wheezing and groaning, and it made her heart miss a beat in excitement. She waited until there was no one else around before she slipped into the small closet to her left. Then, once the door had closed behind her, Clara beamed at the large, blue police box parked in the corner, taking a moment to appreciate just how lucky she was.

Sometimes, Clara thought it must have been better than winning the lottery because the Doctor had picked her to travel with him out of all the people in time and space. She knew that it was temporary, she knew that travelling with him came at a cost, but Clara refused to be sad about that. The Doctor was showing her the universe, he was giving her the best years of her life and, if Clara was quite honest, he was damn lucky to have her.

“Wow, you look… cheerful,” the Doctor noted, looking up from his book when she stepped into the TARDIS. The look of surprise on his face was quickly replaced by one of suspicion. “Did you tape a _Kick Me_ note to your annoying colleague’s back?”

“What?” Clara asked, frowning at him. “No, nothing like that.”

Still, the Doctor didn’t seem entirely convinced.

“It’s just…” she paused, smiling sheepishly and waving her arms around as she stepped closer while trying to find the right words to explain it without sounding silly. Clara may have admitted it to his previous regeneration, but this version wasn’t quite as touchy-feely. It had taken them a while to find a dynamic that suited them both, but she still felt weird saying some of the things she wanted to say to him.

However, the Doctor continued before she had a chance, smiling at her. “I’ve been looking forward to today, too, you know?”

Clara chuckled, her own smile growing a little wider. Maybe his touchy-feely-ness would improve over time. It certainly looked like it.

“Now, let’s not get sentimental,” he concluded as he jumped to his feet. The Doctor cast his book aside and approached the console unit that emitted a soft glow in the centre of the room. It almost looked like the TARDIS was eager for a new adventure as well.

The tips of his fingers trailed over the levers and buttons in an almost gentle caress and his time machine responded by lighting up, glowing just a little brighter than before. The Doctor and his TARDIS, that was something that would probably go on forever, long after she had left him, long after the next companion had left and the one after that. They were inseparable, bound together by their wanderlust and excitement to see all of time and space.

Clara was so lost in her thoughts that she needed a while to realise that the Doctor was staring at her, an expectant look on his face. “So?” he asked. “Where shall we go?”

She shrugged softly. “I don’t know. Is there a particular planet that needs saving today?”

The Doctor turned back towards the console unit and flicked one of the switches before staring at the monitor, brows furrowed in concentration. Clara could only guess that he was scanning for something like the space equivalent of an S.O.S., but he didn’t seem to find anything and she couldn’t be sure that it was actually what he was doing.

“Looks quiet out there,” the Doctor replied after a moment, confirming her suspicion that he had been scanning for distress calls. When he turned back towards her, there was a grin on his face. “Pick a holiday destination.”

Clara considered her options. Where would she like to go right now? With all of time and space at her disposal, it wasn’t an easy decision, almost like choosing something to wear out of a full closet. “Somewhere nice,” she said reluctantly, still thinking it through. “Not too many people. Fresh air. I’m not really in the mood to wear a vacuum suit. Mild temperatures, if that’s an option.”

Spinning back towards the console unit, the Doctor started entering her checklist before he had even finished turning around. His fingers flew over the buttons at what seemed like the speed of light, the two thousand years of travelling in this ship having taught him how to operate the controls without a second thought to it. At last, he pulled a lever and the TARDIS came to life. The top part above the console unit that was engraved with Gallifreyan symbols started to spin, becoming faster as the sound of the engines filled the air and the time machine took off, dematerialising with the familiar groaning sound.

Clara’s heart beat a little faster as it usually did when they were about to embark on a new adventure. She found herself wondering what it was going to be this time, but she knew that any attempts at trying to predict what lay outside these doors were going to be utterly fruitless. It never was what she expected it to be, so she had given up predicting their adventures a long time ago.

When the TARDIS landed and the console unit slowed back down and came to a halt, Clara threw a look at the Doctor. “So, where are we?” she wanted to know, her voice almost brimming over with curiosity.

“Somewhere with not too many people and fresh air,” he replied, shrugging softly. “Also, the weather is really nice. Lovely spring evening.”

Not waiting for him to make the first move, Clara skipped towards the doors of the TARDIS, giggling as she did. The wooden door creaked a little when she opened it, but that wasn’t what she paid a lot of attention to when she closed her eyes and breathed in the air outside. The Doctor certainly hadn’t lied to her about any of it.

The air smelled different, foreign, but not extraterrestrial. Judging by the sweet tang, it was exactly what the Doctor had said it would be: a lovely spring evening. The air was a little cooler than expected and fresh indeed, as if it was completely untouched by humans, and there was a hint of salt in it like from a nearby ocean. Clara determined that she liked it. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that the TARDIS had landed in the middle of a forest. It was almost night and the full moon rose up between the trees.

“Like I said,” the Doctor reiterated, “spring evening. Not too many people.”

Clara scoffed in amusement. “Not many? I’d say there are none. Where are we?”

Looking at him expectantly, she noticed that the Doctor was sniffing the air around him as well, but if he came to a conclusion, he didn’t share it with her. “ _When_ would be the better question,” he remarked, but there was something in the way he looked that made her wary. His brows were knitted in a deep frown that probably should have worried her, but Clara had learned from experience that she was safe with him even in the most precarious situations. There were few things left in this universe that managed to properly scare her.

“Okay,” Clara continued eventually, “ _when_ are we?”

In response, the Doctor stuck his index finger into his mouth and held it up as if trying to figure out where the wind was coming from. Maybe it was what he was doing. Either that, or he used his index finger to phone home. The mental image of a moody Time Lord call centre employee entered her mind and almost made her laugh out loud, but Clara swiftly suppressed the urge.

“Seventeenth century, I think,” the Doctor said cautiously, letting Clara know that he wasn’t entirely sure about that, but even the suspicion made her skin crawl a little. The 1600s weren’t exactly known for their impeccable hygiene and depending on where exactly they had landed, the thoughts of plagues and witch trials and a lot of other unpleasantries popped into her head.

“That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” she said, trying not to make it sound like a complaint.

“Well, you asked for fresh air and you got it. And I don’t see any people here,” the Doctor said, gesturing around the darkening forest.

Now that Clara came to think of it, it did seem a little creepy.

“Yeah,” she remarked, “probably cause they’ve been wiped out by a plague.”

The frown hadn’t faded from the Doctor’s face, in fact, it seemed to deepen the longer they remained in this place and she knew that even if she suggested to leave, it would never happen. Something was wrong with this forest and the Doctor had sensed it almost straight away. No, they were going to stay until they had figured out exactly what was going on.

“We should have a look around,” he suggested and took a step forward.

Clara attempted to follow, but when she moved, something glistened in the moonlight in front of her and it made her stop. Next to her, the Doctor had done the same thing. Her eyes couldn’t see very well in the darkness and she needed a moment to make out what exactly was going on and what was blocking her path and by the time she had recognised the blade, it was definitely too late to run back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor raised his hands in the air in a surrendering gesture and Clara decided to follow his example. After all, there wasn’t much else she could do when someone was pointing spears at them. The people holding them had done an excellent job at disguising themselves, blending almost perfectly into the environment around them. But only almost. From one moment to the next, everything became clear.

“Doctor,” she said carefully, “I think we’ve landed in America.”

He cleared his throat. “I don’t think they call it America… yet.”


	3. Chapter 2

At gunpoint - or rather, spearpoint - the Doctor and Clara were guided through the forest by a handful of men which Clara had eventually recognised as the indigenous people of America. Given the Doctor’s assumption that they had landed somewhere around the sixteenth century, Clara only had to look at them to know it wasn’t their first contact with white people, but she took comfort in the fact that they hadn’t killed them right on the spot even though they probably had every right to assume bad intentions. Maybe, with a bit of luck, the the Doctor would be able to talk the Natives into releasing them.

The men moved quietly through the undergrowth and occasionally, Clara managed to forget that they were there at all until the prodding of a spear tip reminded her of their presence. Not a word was spoken and Clara was too afraid to open her mouth in case it attracted their scorn, but every now and then, she glanced at the Doctor, hoping to received a reassuring look from him, but all she found on his face was worry.

There was a reason the TARDIS had brought them here and the longer they walked, the more Clara could feel it. It was in the forest all around her, clinging to the air like a strange vibe that left an aftertaste on her tongue. Beneath the scent of spring blossoms and salt, there was a metallic tang that couldn’t be drowned out. Or maybe it was just blood from a recent battle. Clara shuddered at the thought, but she didn’t have time to focus on it any further when one of the men prodded her back again, pushing her towards a light that came into view between the trees.

The closer they came, the better Clara could see what was happening in front of them. Two torches marked the end of the forest where more men were waiting in the shadows, stepping out only when the rest of the group came closer. Once they stepped out of the woods, the moon illuminated the landscape a little better, but at the same time, it was casting strange, eerie shadows over the water around them. The salty smell had grown stronger.

“We’ve captured two of them,” one of the man said before Clara received a soft push.

She stumbled forward, out of the shadows, coming to a halt right next to the Doctor. She felt a distinct urge to take his hand, but she resisted the temptation as best as she could while the Native regarded them closely. His eyes trailed from their heads to their toes and back, obviously unsure what to make of them.

“Take them to the boat,” the man said eventually, but still, there was a suspicion in his voice. Whatever it was, Clara decided not to take it as a good sign.

As they were ushered towards the boat, she suddenly felt the Doctor’s hair brush against her cheek as he breathed into her ear. “They’re taking us to their chief,” he said. “Best to let me do the talking.”

Clara snorted. “Have you actually heard yourself talk?”

“Quiet!” one of the men said and stepped into the boat as well. Even though there were only two others on board, Clara doubted that she and the Doctor would be able to overpower them.

As one of the men rowed across the water and the other kept his spear pointed at them in warning, Clara suddenly felt reminded of a different adventure she had had with the Doctor, of four endless days in a Viking longboat amidst the smell of sweat and poor hygiene. The nearest shore wasn’t so distant as far as Clara could tell in the moonlight, so she had hopes that this trip wouldn’t last quite as long.

They glided over the water, docked on the opposite shore and then continued on foot where more of the indigenous people joined them once again. For the first time since stepping inside the TARDIS, Clara began to feel her feet and she remembered the long day at school that almost seemed like a lifetime ago. She was growing tired and suddenly, she regretted not being able to go to sleep in her own bed like her colleagues. Instead, she was a prisoner of a native tribe and might face execution. One thing that was very unlikely to happen, however, was going to sleep in a nice feather bed.

The huts were mere shadows in the night, rising up against the starry sky like behemoths, towering over her at first but growing smaller the closer she came and she noticed their actual size. For a moment, Clara was confused to find actual housing and not tents, but judging from the flat surrounding area, these people weren’t nomads. They were farmers.

“Who are these people?” Clara whispered to the Doctor when she felt almost certain that they couldn’t be overheard. Some of the men were walking in front of them, others behind them, moving them towards the centre of the small settlement that couldn’t have held more than a hundred people. “I mean, what tribe?”

She noticed the Doctor shrug under the moonlight. “I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. Unless they execute us first. In that case, I’d hate to die not knowing who killed me.”

Whenever the Doctor said something like that, Clara felt the urge to slap him. It was easy for him to talk about dying, knowing that he would just come back with a different face. She, on the other hand, only had the one life and she would very much like to keep it. But instead of saying anything, Clara merely shot him a dark look. He didn’t see it.

The hut they were guided to was slightly bigger than the others, leaving Clara to assume it was where the chief lived and when she stepped inside and looked at the man awaiting them, she was momentarily confused. The man was older, yes, and he certainly exuded authority, but there wasn’t any sign that he was superior to the rest of them. Maybe, they had been wrong. Maybe, he was going to be their executioner.

For a while, it seemed that he didn’t notice them at all - or that he didn’t want to notice them. Instead, he used a long stick to poke gently at the glowing embers in the fireplace. They didn’t achieve much in terms of light but radiated a warmth that Clara felt instantly drawn to. She wanted nothing more than to sit in front of the fire and sip a hot cup of tea to warm up.

When the chief finally turned around to acknowledge them, however, Clara’s hopes faded. He wore a serious expression on his face, one of anger mixed with fear. She couldn’t really blame him. After all, she was sure that his experiences with white people had been less than pleasant so far.

“What have you done to my people?” the chief asked eventually with no preamble whatsoever.

Clara was so taken aback by his question that she was too lost for words to reply. The Doctor, however, wasn’t.

“You know, it’s generally considered rude not to introduce yourself before making wild accusations,” the Doctor spat and Clara saw him straighten his shoulders to demonstrate that he was taller than the chief.

For a brief moment, the image of an executioner’s axe flashed in front of her eyes, so Clara decided to jump in before he had a chance to make it worse.

“Hi, I’m Clara Oswald and this is the Doctor,” she said, hoping the nervousness in her voice didn’t show.

The chief stood completely still, regarding them both with a long, inquisitive gaze while Clara could feel her heart hammering in her chest. She had been taken prisoner before, in fact, it had happened so many times that she had already lost count and every single time, they had managed to get out of it. She didn’t see why this time should be any different. Or, at least, she hoped.

“You’re a healer?” the chief asked eventually, still not taking his eyes off them. Clara began to wonder how he could even see them properly in the dim light of the hut.

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. “Something like that, yes.”

At last, the man’s defences started to come down and something about him relaxed, if only a little. Clara took it as a good sign.

“You can call me Chief,” he said. “Everyone does. But you’re not from the colony, are you? Your clothes are strange and you…”

Chief paused, stepping a little closer to get a proper look. It was as if he was searching for something and couldn’t find it, as if he couldn’t quite place them. The suspicion in his eyes grew the longer he looked at them. “You speak our language, but your words are unusual. Who are you and why are you here?”

The Doctor cleared his throat a little awkwardly. “Well, mainly because your people took us prisoner and threatened us with spears.”

“We came to help,” Clara threw in quickly and then remembered the question Chief had started with. Something had happened. Something strange was going on here. Maybe, they really could help. “You said something happened to your people? We’ve only just arrived. We’ve no idea what is happening.”

“You’re bringing provisions to the colony? They’ve been waiting for you for a very long time,” Chief remarked, for the moment ignoring her question.

When the Doctor stepped closer, Clara could see that the conversation had sparked his curiosity. He was thinking something, connecting dots and it was one of those moments Clara wished she could read his thoughts. She had no idea where or when exactly they were, only that they had landed at some early point in the history of colonisation.

“Amongst other things,” the Doctor replied simply. “Something happened to your people, you said. What is that? If you don’t want our help, that’s fine, but then let us go so we can help the colonists. I’m sure they’ll be a lot more grateful.”

Chief considered his response for a while, exchanging glances between the Doctor, Clara and the fire, pondering his words carefully before he spoke at last.

“Two of our people have disappeared,” Chief explained. “They went out to gather firewood and never returned. We found their boat abandoned. There was no trace of them.”

Clara felt the Doctor’s gaze on her before she could turn around and look. His brows were furrowed in a deep, dark frown and suddenly, she could tell what he was thinking without hearing his thoughts.

“You think it was the colonists?” Clara enquired carefully.

“I don’t know who else it could have been,” Chief replied. “There are other tribes living around here, but we are on friendly terms. When we come across each other, we say hello and go our separate ways. In times of draught and hunger, we sometimes share our food. They wouldn’t harm my people.”

A sudden noise startled Clara and she turned her head towards the door, but she couldn’t see what was going on outside.

“Maybe they weren’t harmed,” the Doctor argued. “Maybe they just got lost.”

Chief’s gaze darkened as if he had just been insulted. The sounds outside grew louder, but no one paid any attention to them at all.

“I tell you what, though,” the Doctor continued and raised his hand in a placating gesture, “Clara and I will help you find out what happened to your people and you promise not to harm us.”

Chief opened his mouth and Clara was hoping that he would agree, but he never had a chance when the door burst open and a man stormed in. Everyone in the room spun around to look at him and Clara noticed that he was panting and he held his hand over his upper arm. Despite his best efforts to cover it up, the blood came running down his skin.

“We’re under attack!” he announced.


	4. Chapter 3

“Don’t you just hate it when you’re in the middle of a peace agreement and people suddenly start shooting,” the Doctor said grumpily as they hurried outside.

Clara wanted to protest, thinking that while there was a fight going on, they were probably safer inside, but the Doctor reached for her hand and pulled her out into the open where an arrow immediately whizzed past them. She ducked instinctively.

The small town was dark except for a few lonely torches, but it wasn’t quiet. People were running frantically around the place, armed with spears or bows, shouting something Clara didn’t always understand. Before she had even grasped the severity of the situation, the Doctor pulled her aside, closer to one of the buildings where they took cover. Someone had attacked the little village and Clara couldn’t see who it was, only that everyone was running towards the fight.

“What’s happening?” Clara whispered to him. “Why are they fighting?”

She felt the Doctor shrug next to her. “I can only guess, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the missing people.”

“How?” she wanted to know, frowning in his direction. If the settlers had captured some of their people already, why were they attacking again? More hostages? Food? To kill them all?

“I don’t know,” the Doctor admitted. “But something isn’t right. Something besides this conflict. If only I knew what years it is.”

Clara turned her head towards him, but his features were hard to make out in the moonlight. “Why? Does it matter?”

The Doctor didn’t reply for a long moment and then, he uttered a sound that made her blood freeze in her veins.

“Oh,” he said eventually. “Ohhhhh.”

“What?!” she demanded, snapping at him. The Doctor knew something and it probably wasn’t good. Clara had a right to know if he thought they were going to be in trouble.

“I think I know, but I’m not sure. God, I hope I’m wrong,” he said and spun around on the spot. “Come on, this is our chance to escape.”

A gunshot tore through the air, making her twitch. Getting away from the fight seemed like an excellent idea right now, but right as she had set out to follow him, the Doctor came to an abrupt halt again in front of a bush. Clara glanced past him and could hardly see why he had stopped, but there was the silhouette of a man blocking their path.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Chief asked, pointing the spear at both of them.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Actually, we were going to make a run for it, see if we can find the settlement and figure out what happened to your people.”

When her eyes started to get accustomed to the dim light, Clara was able to see a little more. She saw the expression in Chief’s eyes and the way he lowered his weapon just a little, but not enough for it to cease feeling threatening.

“We’re not your enemy,” the Doctor reassumed him, his gravelly voice calm and quiet, barely audible over the sound of the nearby fight. “We came here to help and that’s what we’re going to do. Let us go and we will do our best to find out whether your people are still alive. If it’s in any way possible, we will bring them back to you. You have my word.”

“I have no reason to trust you.” Chief’s voice was hard when he spoke, rough, as if he had trusted the wrong people before and lived to regret it.

“You have no reason not to trust us,” Clara said and finally stepped forward. “Yes, you could try to trade us for the people you’ve lost if the colonists are really the ones who captured them. If not, this man is your best chance of finding out what happened to them.”

She nodded towards the Doctor when she said those words and she meant every single one of them. After so many moments of trusting the Doctor with her life, Clara often struggled to understand why so many people hesitated to do the same. But then the Doctor usually started talking and she remembered why that was, but that was beside the point. Clara trusted him to do the right thing and she had to convince Chief to do the same.

Finally, Chief’s features softened a little and he stepped aside, lowering his spear to let them pass. However, as soon as the Doctor attempted to move forward, he was held back by Chief’s hand. When he spoke again, his voice sounded urgent, almost pleading.

“Be careful out there,” he warned them. “And find my people if you can. They weren’t warriors, they were just two boys looking for firewood.”

“We’ll be in touch,” the Doctor promised and hurried past him, Clara following the Time Lord on his heels.

They had only managed to take a few steps when she heard Chief’s voice again. Both of them spun around.

“You know, Doctor,” the man chuckled, “your words really are strange.”

The Doctor uttered a sound of amusement next to her, but before any of them could reply, Chief turned away from them and joined his fighting men. Time for the two of them to leave.

The forest had grown even darker and even though the moon had risen high above the trees, it hardly penetrated the treetops and shed little light on their path. They stumbled almost blindly through the night and once again, Clara became aware how cold it really was and how the noise of the fight slowly faded as they moved on. But there was a question weighing on her mind, several ones, in fact, and she realised that they hadn’t really had a chance to talk among themselves in between the abduction and the attack on the town.

“You had an idea earlier,” Clara noted once they were well out of earshot from the town and the fighting people.

“Huh?”

“Earlier, when we were talking. You said _ohhhh_ and that usually means you have an idea. What was it?” Clara craned her neck at him, hoping to see a reaction, but if the Doctor had one, she couldn’t see it.

“More of a hunch, really,” he admitted and continued his stride. It only occurred to her now that they had no idea which direction they were heading, no idea where the colony was. They just walked blindly and she vowed to protest as soon as the Doctor had finished his thought. “We’re in the very early years of colonisation. The Natives were friendly.”

“Friendly?!” Clara blurted out in disbelief. “They kidnapped us. That’s not exactly my definition of friendly.”

“They didn’t kill us either,” he argued. “And they only did it because they thought the colonists had taken some of their people. But the funny thing is, they didn’t know. They weren’t sure, which means their relationship can’t be that bad. Not yet, anyway.”

“And that’s bad?”

“Depends.”

Sometimes, especially when he was being vague, Clara felt the urge to pinch the Doctor. He often did that and Clara wasn’t sure whether he just wanted to be mysterious, in which case it was extremely annoying, or whether he just hated being wrong in public if his theories turned out to be incorrect, in which case it was also extremely annoying.

“Depends on what?” she asked impatiently, determined to get his theory out of him, but there was no reply.

Clara turned her head, but she couldn’t see the Doctor anywhere. In the darkness, she spun around, trying to see something, _anything_ , hoping it was only the low light that was hiding the Doctor from her.

“Doctor?!” she called out carefully, but he still didn’t answer.

The Doctor was gone.

Only seconds passed between the realisation that she had lost him and the sudden attack. From one moment to the next, her world was plunged into darkness as someone walked to her from behind. She couldn’t see it or hear it, she merely felt it before she saw… nothing. Clara didn’t even have the chance to scream when someone held on to her hands and threw a blanket over her head. Despite her attempts to kick and scream, her attacker carried her away.


	5. Chapter 4

Her kicking and her screaming amounted to nothing at all and when they tied up her hands, Clara knew that she was in big trouble. Last time, the Natives had been gentler and she was sure that their recent escape had only made things worse. But why would Chief let them go when his men intended to bring them back? Were they not aware that he had set them free? A lot of questions formed in her mind, questions that she knew wouldn’t be answered until they were back in the village.

Clara tried to wriggle her hands out of her restraints, but they were too tightly bound to make an escape possible. They led her through the forest for a while, grabbing her arm and pushing her forward while she had lost all sense of direction. Was that the way back to the little village? She couldn’t be sure and she didn’t know how much time had passed. In the darkness, everything seemed to last an eternity and to be over in a second at the same time.

When one of the men suddenly hoisted her up, Clara yelped, but then her feet touched the ground again and she realised that it was no ground. The surface under her shoes was shaky. She was on a boat. Just when Clara was thinking that it certainly wasn’t the way back to the village, she finally heard the one voice that made the weight drop off her shoulders.

“You know what I hate more than being taken prisoner? Being taken prisoner twice on the same day!” the Doctor complained loudly before Clara heard a loud thud right next to her and the boat began to shake.

Wherever she was, wherever they were taking her, the Doctor was here as well and even though it wasn’t a lot of help right now, Clara thought that at least, they were together.

“I agree with him,” Clara replied, letting the Doctor know that she was here, too, that they had gotten her as well.

“Oh, Clara,” he said, the surprise audible in his voice, “I’d said it’s a pleasure seeing you again, but I can’t really see at the moment because _someone has blindfolded me!_ ”

“Silence!” A rough, deep voice cut through the air.

“If you wanted silence, you should have gagged me, not put a sack over my head,” the Doctor spat in return and it was clear from the tone of his voice that he was losing his patience. Clara thought it was more than understandable given the circumstances.

“I will if you don’t stop talking,” the other man said.

“Why?” the Doctor wanted to know. “What’s wrong with having a decent conversation with your prisoners? Oh, how about a nice interrogation? I love interrogations! I always learn so much from them and in return, I will tell you that you’re an idiot, but you probably know that already!”

“I said _silence_!”

Something happened to make the Doctor shut up, but Clara couldn’t see what that was. There was a short movement and then his voice stopped. If Clara had to guess, she would have said that someone had pointed a weapon at him, but whatever it was, it caused the Doctor to be silent for the rest of the boat trip.

It seemed to go on forever and seeing as they were not in immediate danger of losing their life, Clara felt herself relax a little. If their captors wanted them dead, they would have died long before they had ever reached the boat, so instead of worrying about things she couldn’t possibly predict, Clara decided to close her eyes and let the gentle waves and the movement of the vessel lull her into sleep. A long day of teaching and the recent adventure with the Natives had left her exhausted. And hungry. Clara hoped that when they woke up, wherever they woke up, there would be food.

The boat hit the shore quite roughly, shaking Clara awake when she hadn’t even realised she had fallen asleep, but there was no time to properly regain consciousness when someone grabbed her arm and lifted her up. By now, a dim light managed to penetrate her impromptu blindfold, leading her to the conclusion that the sun had come up at some point during their journey.

They continued on foot, her soles burning in her shoes after the long walks and Clara couldn’t say where she was or where they were taking them, only that the Doctor was still there and complaining all the way.

“You know, you can take those things off,” he said after a while. “We’re not local. We won’t know where we are anyway.”

The group came to a sudden halt. Clara only knew to stop because she could no longer hear any footsteps and suddenly, the blanket was whisked away from her and the light of the sun blinded her eyes. For a long moment, she couldn’t see anything. Then, the impressive structures of a wall made of tree trunks came into view, towering over her in an almost threatening manner.

“Well, that’s certainly interesting,” the Doctor remarked.

One of the men shouted for the gate to be opened and Clara used the moment to take a look at her captors. It wasn’t the Natives who had caught them this time, it was the settlers. Clara could tell by the way they dressed and suddenly, she felt like she had jumped straight into one of her favourite books. Only none of them were wearing a scarlet letter on their chest.

The gate opened slowly, only a small crack appeared through which they would have to go one at a time and their captors pushed them forward. Clara followed the Doctor through the gate and her mouth instantly fell open. The colony really wasn’t what she had expected it to be. Hidden behind the strong fence were countless small houses made of wood, a small town centre and people roaming the place in old-fashioned clothing or dresses and she marvelled at the sight in front of her. The Doctor had taken Clara to so many places across all of time and space, but no matter how many things she saw, they never ceased to amaze her. And as much as she loved travelling to the future, seeing new planets and ships and space stations, history was always something else, something that left her in awe every time.

Her thoughts about how magnificent the little town was came to an abrupt halt when she noticed a man approaching them. He was taller than most of the colonists and he seemed to wear his large belly with pride as he walked up to them.

“Who are these people?” he demanded to know, nodding towards the Doctor and Clara. Somehow, she was under the impression that he wasn’t entirely happy to see them, but what was obvious was that he appeared to be in charge.

One of their captors stepped forward. “We found them in the forest close to the settlement of the savages. We figured they belonged to them and took them prisoner.”

“You know, I wouldn’t use that word,” the Doctor snapped. “It’s generally considered quite offensive.”

The man in charge ignored him and instead, glared at his men. “Do these people look like savages to you?!” he barked at the captors.

Murmurs went through the small crowd of the captors shortly before another voice said: “It was dark, Sir. You told us to take hostages. We did.”

He scoffed in reply and at last, turned towards the Doctor and Clara. “My name is Nicholas Johnson and I’m the acting governor of this colony until Governor White returns. Who would you be and what is your business here?” he demanded to know. There wasn’t even an inch of friendliness in his voice.

The Doctor cleared his throat before the formal introduction. “I’m the Doctor and this is my assistant Clara. Our ship landed here just last night and we had a little chat with some of the locals around here before your men took us prisoner.”

Johnson hesitated for a long moment, regarding them closely until Clara could feel his gaze tingle her skin. She determined that she hated him even though she couldn’t quite say why that was, but there was an air of unpleasantness around him that she despised.

“Take those restraints off!” Governor Johnson ordered his men and they obeyed without a moment’s hesitation.

Clara uttered a sigh of relief when she was finally able to move her hands again. She was sure that the feeling in them would also return very soon.

“You look hungry,” Johnson said, but the politeness seemed fake on him. “You will have breakfast with me and tell me everything about your travels. To be honest, I had expected Governor White, but I’ll take the help I can get. This is a very unpleasant place and an even worse situation we’re in.”

Johnson turned around, waving at them to follow him and they did, but it wasn’t long before the Doctor raised his voice again.

“I also have some questions,” he said and then chuckled a little nervously. “I’m afraid we’ve been travelling for such a long time that we’ve sort of lost track. Where are we and what year is it?”

The governor turned around and for the first time, there was a trace of amusement on his face. He laughed. “My, you really have lost track. It’s 1589 and this is Roanoke, the first and so far only established colony in the new world.”

Even though Johnson moved on, the Doctor had come to an abrupt halt and Clara stopped a few steps ahead of him, trying to figure out why that was. There was an expression of shock on his face, an expression of pure horror that Clara didn’t understand. Somehow, the words of the governor had managed to startle him and Clara didn’t even need to know why. The look on the Doctor’s face was enough to send a wave of fear through her body, enough to make the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. She knew that look and she knew that when something frightened the Doctor, everyone else had a very good reason to start feeling afraid as well.

“Governor Johnson,” the Doctor said gravely, “I’m afraid I have bad news for you.”


	6. Chapter 5

The acting governor ignored them for a long time while two servants bustled around the house, preparing breakfast and setting the table. Clara would have loved to tell them not to make too much of a fuss, but actually, she was kind of grateful seeing as she hadn’t eaten anything since her lunch break the day before. Not even the Doctor’s anxious behaviour managed to drive away her appetite at this point - and he was acting anxious.

The Doctor sat next to her, tapping the table with his fingers, the sound of that penetrating Clara’s eardrums and driving her insane. After a failed attempt to warn Johnson about something, he had become increasingly impatient and she had half a mind to slap his hand away from the table just to make the noise stop. Something about the date and the location had set the Doctor on edge and even though she kept racking her brain for a reason, it just wouldn’t present itself.

“Governor Johnson, we need to talk,” the Doctor said once again, an urgency in his voice that only continued to frustrate Clara, but the man in charge didn’t seem to pay any attention to them at all.

He was too busy instructing his servants on how he would like breakfast to be served.

Finally, Clara snapped and she slammed her flat hand down on the Doctor’s fidgeting fingers. The noise stopped instantly.

“What is going on?!” Clara demanded to know in a hushed voice. He was obviously desperate to get something off his chest and since the governor wasn’t listening, he might as well tell her instead.

The Doctor inhaled deeply and leaned a little closer. “History lesson,” he whispered, raising his eyebrows at her just a little. It made him look curious and, yes, it reminded her of her history teacher back at school. “What was the first British colony in the new world?”

Clara considered her answer for a moment and then, it finally started to dawn on her. The Doctor was right. Something didn’t quite fit.

“That was Jamestown, wasn’t it?” she asked back. To be quite honest, she hadn’t paid that much attention back at school when it came to the history of colonisation. Her interests had been elsewhere. “But this isn’t it. This isn’t Jamestown. And we’re, what? Twenty years too early? This isn’t right.”

“Oh, it is right,” the Doctor argued with a soft chuckle. “But you humans have a habit of omitting parts of your history that don’t make you look good. There were earlier attempts at colonisation, earlier than Jamestown, earlier than 1607. Governor Johnson was entirely correct when he said this is the one and only colony. Welcome to Roanoke.”

Clara gawked at him, not sure what to make of it all. Slowly, she was beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together in her mind, but they wouldn’t quite fit. The very first colony, almost twenty years earlier than Jamestown, missing people and the Doctor was frightened of something. None of it eased her mind in the slightest.

“What happened to Roanoke?” Clara found herself asking, but all she earned from the Doctor in reply was a shrug and a sinister look. It made her skin crawl in fear and… excitement.

Their conversation came to an abrupt end when the servants entered the dining room, armed with plates of delicious smelling food. Clara’s mouth started to water. Not even the appearance of the unpleasant governor could ruin her appetite even though he really seemed to try hard.

“Apologies for the mayhem,” Governor Johnson said, his voice as insincere as ever. “But since the servants have figured out how to cook at last, we can have breakfast now.”

Johnson sat down on the opposite end of the table and for a brief moment, Clara wondered whether his family would join him. Then she thought about who would marry a man like him and her mind remained blank. It would have been sad if the man hadn’t had such a sinister aura around him. Nevertheless, Clara was too hungry to question it further and reached for a fresh roll.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” the Doctor replied, equalling the governor’s insincerity with his voice. Two could play this game and the Doctor certainly played it well. “So, this is the part where I’m telling you that you should pack your bags and head back to England on the very next ship.”

Governor Johnson scoffed and dropped his fork back on the plate with a loud clang. “I think you misunderstood the situation, Doctor. You’re not my guest and I don’t take orders from you. My men took you prisoner and until you can prove that you’re on our side, you will remain my prisoner. Don’t let the fact that I have had your restraints removed fool you. You’re not free to go and you’re certainly not free to question my authority.”

The Doctor glowered at him for a long moment, his gaze growing darker by the second and Clara could feel that he was losing his patience. A part of her even hoped that he would unleash his full anger in front of the rude governor, but instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the psychic paper, holding it up in front of Johnson.

The man bent closer, squinting his eyes at the writing before they grew wider and wider.

“I am so sorry to have doubted you,” Johnson spluttered instantly once he had taken in the information. He glanced up between the Doctor and Clara and seemed torn about something. “I’m glad that Her Majesty is taking our plea seriously enough to send her closest counsellor, but I’m afraid that even I had misjudged the gravity of the situation when I sent that request. It’s much worse than we had feared. The savages-”

“Let’s call them Natives, shall we?” the Doctor suggested. “After all, they were here before you.”

Governor Johnson cleared his throat. “The Natives were friendly when our people first came here. They helped them, they shared their food with them, but something happened. When we landed here, the place was deserted and the Croatoan Indians-”

“Natives,” the Doctor corrected.

“The Natives were hostile towards us. We sought contact and managed to broker a sort of peace agreement. Without them, we probably wouldn’t have made it through the draught and the following winter.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him while Clara listened carefully, taking in every piece of information that she could. That and the Doctor’s uneasiness somehow left her with the impression there was something else going on, something bigger than their petty conflict. Something around here didn’t feel quite right.

“And yet you attacked them and tried to take some of their people prisoner,” he argued.

“They started this,” Johnson explained. “Some of our people have disappeared and we found a body of a man who had been butchered. And most recently, a boy vanished.”

“Funny cause I heard a similar story from their chief. Two of their boys vanished and they think it was you,” the Doctor said and Clara wasn’t sure whether he had intended to make it sound like an accusation or whether it just had come out like that.

“It wasn’t us,” Governor Johnson hissed immediately.

“Maybe it was one of the other tribes then,” he suggested.

The governor’s gaze hardened from one moment to the next and Clara knew that whatever was about to follow, the Doctor wasn’t going to like it. “I appreciate your help, Doctor, I really do, but I’ve been in charge here for quite some time and I know how things work in the new world. We will treat you as our guests, but that’s it. I can’t let you meddle in things you don’t understand.”

_Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t understand_ , Clara thought, but she knew better than to say it out loud. At least until she and the Doctor had gathered more information.

“Will you at least hear my advice?” the Doctor asked gruffly.

Johnson gave a short nod of approval.

“The new world, as you call it, is a dangerous place. Your people would be better off sailing back home and I have a ship to take you there. You said you found the colony abandoned when you arrived. Haven’t you ever wondered what happened to everyone?”

For a moment, the governor said nothing at all. Then, he shrugged. “Either they were killed by one of the tribes or they joined one to survive. Living here is rough, the soil is dry and they probably figured they had a better chance if they joined the… Natives. We tried asking them about it, but they refused to tell us anything.”

“And that doesn’t frighten you?” the Doctor wanted to know. It was a legitimate question because the idea certainly managed to give Clara goosebumps.

Suddenly, the governor rose to his feet and Clara felt the urge to follow his example, but since the Doctor remained seated, she decided to do the same. The longer they talked, the more she started to get a bad feeling it in her gut. It was a strange, dirty feeling.

“If I was frightened by the prospect of dying, I wouldn’t have made the journey,” the governor replied harshly and then, his face changed into a false smile. “I’m sure you must be tired. I will have one of my servants show you one of the empty houses where you can stay. Make yourself comfortable.”

Johnson’s voice left no room for protests, so the Doctor and Clara decided to follow his order for now. One of the servant girls arrived and waved at them to follow her outside and across the little town square. Even though she had admired it earlier, the settlement had now lost most of its charm and become a dark, bleary place. A place where people vanished and killed each other and everything she had learned somehow tainted the peace and quiet of the town. It was calm, but Clara felt a heaviness hanging in the air, the oppressive feeling of a coming storm and she knew that they would be here to watch it come down.

When the servant girl stopped in front of one of the houses, Clara turned around once more to look at the village and her eyes caught the sight of a young girl. She wasn’t quite sure how she had spotted her because the little one was hiding behind the well, only part of her head peeking out, staring at two strangers with curiosity. Clara smiled and lifted her hand in a waving gesture, but the girl vanished back into hiding.


	7. Chapter 6

There was something about the way the strangers dressed that caught the girl’s attention. They didn’t fit in. The clothes they wore and the way they talked were so different from everyone else that the girl couldn’t quite believe no one else was noticing it.

Then again, a lot of strange things had happened lately and the colonists found it easier to turn a blind eye or to blame it on the Natives than to acknowledge that something was wrong. She, on the other hand, had witnessed it firsthand. The disappearance of Michael, the total silence and now the strangers. Counsellors of the Queen, some of the servants had said. The girl squinted her eyes at them, not quite sure whether to believe it or not. There was something off about them in ways that she couldn’t comprehend, but looking at them gave her one distinct feeling that was impossible to shake: they didn’t belong here. They weren’t supposed to be here and she wasn’t sure whether it was a good sign or a bad one.

When the door of the house closed and the servant hurried back towards the governor’s home, the girl decided to sneak a little closer. There had to be a way to find out more.

* * *

Clara sank down on the bed with a sigh of relief. It wasn’t nearly as cosy and soft as her own bed at home, but when she lay down, her back and legs certainly thanked her for taking some of the pressure off. Slowly, the pain in them started to abate and Clara decided to stay like that for at least a while.

As she turned on her side, finding a more comfortable spot, Clara took in her surroundings. The house was modest and a lot smaller than that of the governor. Two rooms, one containing two beds, a table, chairs, a cabinet and the fireplace. The other room was separate for privacy reasons only and held a sort of bathroom with a bowl and jug - nothing else. Still, Clara was grateful for the comfort of a bed.

The Doctor had taken a moment to look around as well and once he had finished assessing the house, he produced his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. It light up and omitted a buzzing sound.

Clara chuckled. “Everything here is made out of wood,” she remarked. “What exactly are you hoping to accomplish?”

His eyes set on the device, the Doctor replied: “Scanning for anything that isn’t wood.”

She looked at him for a moment, then decided to sit back up, realising that the surface of the bed was harder than she had initially thought. For a while, she simply regarded the Doctor, hoping that he would start talking of how own accord, but he never did. Instead, his focus lay on the sonic and whatever it was scanning for.

“Why are you trying to make the colonists leave?” Clara asked him eventually. It was obvious that he knew something about Roanoke, but she wasn’t entirely sure what that was. Something potentially dangerous, yes, but she didn’t know why. “What do you know about Roanoke?”

Sighing heavily, the Doctor looked at his sonic for a moment longer and, realising that it hadn’t yet found what he was searching for, he sank down on the nearest chair. “Roanoke was Britain’s very first colonisation attempt. The first settlers came here in 1585 and they immediately struck up a sort of friendship with the Croatoans. I’m assuming that’s the tribe we visited yesterday.”

“Strange friendship,” Clara remarked. “Trying to capture each other’s people.”

The Doctor snorted. “Yeah, well, the friendship didn’t last very long. The colonists started running out of food, so the governor went back to England for more supplies. When he returned to Roanoke, he found the colony abandoned. There was no one there, not even a corpse.”

A shiver ran down her neck, rippling her skin in goosebumps as the Doctor raised his hands in a puzzled gesture. Clara leaned forward just a little to get a better look at his expression, but it gave nothing away.

“What happened to them?”

He shrugged. “No one knows. They sent a search party of fifteen man who were supposed to figure it out. Guess what happened to them.”

Clara’s eyes widened a little and suddenly, she felt cold despite the warm spring weather. She swallowed hard as the realisation hit her. “They disappeared.”

The Doctor nodded gravely.

“What about these people?” she demanded to know. “What will happen to them?”

Before answering her question, the Doctor licked his lips and drew a sharp breath. “Because the food was running out and the situation grew quite dire, they sent for more supplies and support. When the ships arrive a year from now, they won’t find anyone. They will have all have disappeared again without a trace. Every single one of them.”

Clara blew the air out of her lungs, but nothing she did was able to drive away the shivering and the sense of impending doom. Something was going to happen here, something not even the Doctor could predict and it was going to happen soon with them as witnesses. The TARDIS never brought them to a place just so they could miss the action.

“There are theories,” the Doctor went on. “Some historians believe the colonists joined the Croatoans, some say they just abandoned this specific spot because the land was barren and resettled elsewhere, but the colonists were never found.”

Raising her eyebrows at him and then at the screwdriver, Clara realised something. “You have a different theory,” she noted.

In response, the Doctor picked up his sonic that was still buzzing in his hand and looked at it for a while. “I don’t believe humans just vanish into thin air. It’s possible that the Croatoans took them in, yes, but it’s just as likely that something killed them and just buried their bodies deep enough. When we arrived, I felt something.”

“Something weird and alien?” Clara asked. She had been feeling something weird as well, the feeling of the oncoming storm, the strange tang in the air.

“Whatever it is, it has already started,” the Doctor replied and looked up, straight at her. “People from both sides are already disappearing, aren’t they? I think it’s just the beginning.”

Clara opened her mouth to reply, to tell him that they should try to convince the settlers to go into the TARDIS and find a safer place, but her words were cut short when the sonic screwdriver sudden stopped. The buzzing sound ceased and the lights started to flash. It had found something.

“What is it?” she wanted to know.

The Doctor examined his tool for a while, ignoring her question as he tried to interpret the results of the search. “You were right,” he said eventually and raised his head again. “Something weird and alien. And it appears to be eating people.”


	8. Chapter 7

Even though Clara had really hoped for a moment of rest, the thought now seemed ridiculous given the circumstances and her mind was racing with the possibilities and the potential dangers. A colony whose people kept vanishing, the screwdriver discovering something alien nearby. There had to be a connection and the Doctor would find it.

The moment his sonic had started to flash its lights at them, the Doctor had grabbed his tool and darted outside, leaving Clara with no choice but to follow him. Outside the little hut, a gust of wind blew a stray leaf into her face and she found herself gasping for air. The oppressive feeling had disappeared and given way to the first signs of a bad storm and the beautiful blue sky was covered in dark grey clouds. Even though the ground was dry, it already smelled like rain.

The Doctor didn’t seem to pay any attention to the weather as he followed his screwdriver like a compass, crossing the town square and heading towards the gate at a fast pace.

“We may need to borrow one of their boats,” he said as he continued his stride and Clara tried to find the right words to tell him that maybe, now wasn’t the best time to be heading out, but she never had a chance when one of the colonists stepped into their path.

“You’re heading the wrong way,” the young man said. He smiled at them, but Clara thought that there was something about him that made him look uneasy. “The shelter is over there, at the far end of the town.”

For a moment, the Doctor seemed confused, exchanging glances between the man and the flashing sonic in his hand. She hoped they wouldn’t have to explain what strange kind of torch he was carrying, but the young colonist never noticed it.

“We’re not going to the shelter,” the Doctor announced. “We’re investigating the disappearance of your people and I have a lead.”

Clara opened her mouth, determined to tell him that there would still be time for that later without getting caught in the storm, but then the unpleasant governor stepped in and took care of that for her.

“I must ask you to come with us to the shelter,” Johnson said, his voice harsh and impatient. He had obviously been making rounds, telling the same thing to every resident. “The storms here are brutal and they can last for a very long time. Please, follow Timothy’s instructions.”

“I think I can handle myself,” the Doctor argued, but Clara silenced any further protests by reaching for his arm.

“He’s right,” she told him even though she was just as eager to find out what kind of alien technology was hiding in the new world. “We’ll just wait for the storm to blow over and then check out your… thing.”

The governor only waited long enough to see the Doctor nod, then turned his back on them and headed over to a different group of people who were tying down loose items. The way the colonists acted told Clara that it was far from their first case of severe weather and she started to wonder how bad it would really be. They seemed to be preparing for a tempest and all of a sudden, she wished that she hadn’t stopped the Doctor. The safest place for them to be would be inside the TARDIS, but she wasn’t sure whether they would reach the spaceship in time.

“Follow me,” the colonist named Timothy said and waved his hand at them.

The Doctor and Clara did as he asked and crossed the town square again where the wind was blowing a bucket across the ground. It was picking up speed.

“The storage barn is the safest building in this place,” Timothy explained to them, his voice sounding a little too upbeat given the circumstances. He seemed like a man who was desperate not to show how scared he really was.“Why?” the Doctor wanted to know. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to secure the houses people actually lived in?”

Timothy shook his head. “We can rebuild the houses. There’s more than enough wood to build a city the size of London, but if we run out of food, we’re doomed. The weather around here is hostile. Long periods of drought, followed by storms and downpours and hailstorms. Not exactly ideal conditions to grow… well, anything.”

Clara understood and the Doctor nodded absent-mindedly, pocketing his sonic as he followed the colonist to a building at the far end of the town. Then, the first raindrop hit her nose. And then another.

Before she knew what was happening, the downpour began and there wasn’t enough time to run towards the shelter as the drops pelted down on their hair and clothes, drenching everything down to the bones. Clara yelped when it turned into hail and it hammered down onto her head no matter how she tried to cover it and when the thunder rumbled in the distance, she knew that they were in for a violent storm.

Clara exhaled sharply once they had reached the barn and she heard the Doctor and Timothy pant next to her, obviously glad to have finally reached the shelter.

“You really picked a spot with nasty weather, didn’t you? You considered resettling to California?” the Doctor asked. It was meant as a joke, Clara knew that, but she also knew that the humour was lost on Timothy who had no idea what California was. “Really, it’s nice there. Palm trees, beaches, just watch out for the occasional wildfire and you’ll be fine.”

Timothy stared at him for a moment, trying to make sense of the Doctor’s words. Clara found herself wondering whether he would ask or ignore the strange remark. “I have to go back out,” he said eventually. Ignoring the Doctor, then. It was a wise choice in Clara’s opinion. “We need to secure everything and bring the rest of the people here.”

“Can I help?” the Doctor asked.

His suggestion took Timothy by surprise. A few seconds passed before he shrugged. “Sure, we need all the help we can get. Come on.”

While Timothy instantly ran back outside, the Doctor turned towards Clara once again. He had that look on his face, the one she hated most about him.

It said: _If I don’t come back, you know what to do._

“See you later,” Clara said to him before he could open his mouth. “I’ll make sure everything is running smoothly here.”

At last, the corners of his mouth twitched a little, but the Doctor couldn’t quite bring himself to smile. Then, without saying anything else, he turned his back on her and headed outside.

Clara blew the air out between her teeth and decided that they had been in worse situations and they had gotten out of those alive and with all body parts still attached. A storm and a looming alien threat was a good day by their standards.

With her determination rekindled, Clara took one last breath and turned around to have a good look at the shelter she was in. The barn seemed sturdy enough even though the wind and hailstorm still battered the wood on the outside and there was a howling coming from small gaps in the structure through which the wind still found a way. It would do. It would have to do if they wanted to remain dry, but according to Timothy, the food would be the problem. If the colonists lost that, they would be doomed.

Once she had assessed the building itself, Clara turned her attention towards the people. Most of the colonists had already gathered inside the barn, huddled together in groups between the hay and sacks and crates filled with provisions, their agitated voices hardly audible over the howling storm. A child was crying somewhere in the room and Clara decided that it was time to do something. She grabbed the nearest stack of blankets and walked further into the barn, approaching a family of four who was just as wet as she was to hand them one of the blankets.

“Thank you,” the father said kindly and granted her a smile.

Clara smiled back at him, not knowing what else to do. She was freezing and draping a blanket over her shoulders would probably help, but she wasn’t quite ready to settle down yet. As she walked among the colonists, Clara took in their faces and she saw fear in them. For the first time, it hit her that these people had given up everything for a new start. They had left their homes, their friends, possibly a few loved ones to go on a journey that was full of dangers. Their ship could have sunk, the indigenous people could have killed them, they could have starved out here - still could - but they had made a home in a foreign land. All of them were incredibly brave and Clara found herself admiring them. She and the Doctor faced dangers on every adventure, but she had never been asked to abandon her entire life, she had never set out on an adventure on this scale. In a way, all of these colonists were braver than she was.

Suddenly, Clara’s eyes fell on something. She wasn’t entirely sure why she hadn’t seen her before, but once her gaze locked on the small girl, Clara remembered her. It was the same girl she had already spotted hiding behind the well, she had waved at her and now, that girl was sitting in the barn, squeezed between two crates, shivering. And she was all alone.

It was her instinct as a teacher to spot the lonely child, the troubled child, and she approached the little girl who couldn’t be older than ten, smiling warmly as she did. Without even asking first, Clara spread the last blanket and draped it over the girl’s shoulders.

“There, that’s better, isn’t it?” she asked and sank down to sit next to the girl.

The child remained silent for a long while, merely staring at Clara out of big, blue eyes. She was a beautiful girl with long, black hair that she had tied back in a braid and her face was clever and alert. Somehow, Clara had the impression that she saw surprise in it.

“Thank you,” the girl said eventually, her voice bright and melodic.

Once again, Clara looked around the room, but none of the colonists seemed to pay them any attention, they didn’t seem to pay the girl any attention. Her parents obviously weren’t here and somehow, it bugged Clara that none of the people had decided to look after the girl.

“I’m Clara,” she introduced herself. “What’s your name?”

Again, the girl seemed surprised, but she still replied. “Sally.”

Clara smiled. “That’s a beautiful name, Sally. Are your parents still outside?”

After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded.

“It’s okay to be scared of the storm, you know? But we’ll be fine in here and the others will join us soon,” Clara told her. “It’s all going to be fine.”

The girl didn’t respond. Instead, she let her gaze wander around the room, the gaze no one reciprocated. Once the storm was over, Clara would have a word with the villagers about how to take care of vulnerable people in a community.

“You’re not from here,” Sally noted after a while. “Your language is different and your clothes are, too.”

In reply, Clara chuckled. “You’re right. My friend and I only just landed. Where we come from things are a bit… different. But we’re here to help you.”

A loud bang shook the barn and every conversation went silent immediately. Clara suddenly found her heart beating faster as she imagined the roof coming down, but she invoked Timothy’s words in her head. The barn was the safest place to be.

“It’s only the wind,” she told the girl even though Clara knew that a part of her wanted to reassure herself. “Nothing’s going to hap-”

Her sentence was abruptly cut short when another, louder bang tore through the air, throwing the door open. A gust of wind followed, carrying the rain and the hail with it, blasting it straight into Clara’s face. Then came the frantic voices of the colonists as they all jumped to their feet. She heard the screams long before she understood what was happening and by the time mudslide flooded the barn, it seemed too late to do anything except to pray.


	9. Chapter 8

Clara hoisted Sally up in her arms, surprised by how heavy the girl really was, but as the mudslide reached her ankles and threatened to throw her to the floor, Clara was glad that she had acted so quickly. The force would have knocked the girl to the ground.

All around her, people were panicking and Clara’s own mind was racing with everything that was happening. The heavy rain and wind had pelted down on the ground with such force that there had been no time for the dry soil to soak it all up. Instead, the rain had mingled with the accumulated dust and turned into a marring wave of mud. The same mud that had forced its way into the storage barn and now threatened to ruin their food. Something had to happen and Clara found herself wondering what the Doctor would do.

“What’s the second safest building?!” she shouted at the people around her, but no one appeared to be listening. They were too busy trying to stay on their feet as the mudslide continued to press its way into the barn.

Clara growled to herself and fought her way through the mud until she took the centre of the barn. “Everyone listen up!” she shouted again and then pointed at one of the older men. “You. What is the second safest building in this colony?!”

The man opened his mouth and moved it a few times. It made him look like a surprised fish who couldn’t believe that he was the one being spoken to. “I, uh, that would be the governor’s home,” he replied eventually.

“Good,” Clara concluded instantly. It probably wasn’t _good_ , especially from the governor’s point of view, but it was all they had. “Someone needs to take all the women and children to the house now. Everyone with a bit of upper body strength stays here. We need to stack the provisions so the mud can’t reach them.”

The panic stopped and instead, a murmur spread across the room, people talking in hushed voices, pondering what to do and whether to follow Clara’s orders. She rolled her eyes at them, thinking that if the Doctor had said it, the colonists would already be working on it.

“Or we could wait until the food is ruined and the children are up to their chins in mud,” she growled, hoping the colonists would catch her sarcasm.

The man she had turned to hesitantly stepped forward. “The governor will not like it,” he argued carefully.

Clara’s face turned into a deep frown. “The governor is responsible for keeping his people safe. Go to his home and stay there until the worst blows over,” she ordered them and then moved before anyone else had a chance to protest.

Carrying the girl out into the storm was brutal and it almost knocked her off her feet once she left the safety of the barn, but still, Clara realised with relief that the people were following her. The hail had stopped by now, but the storm had grown even worse and the rain was coming down as if someone up there was emptying buckets over their heads. It was hard to see exactly where she was headed. She only recognised Governor Johnson’s house by its size and lowered her head as she trudged towards it. Even though the previous shower had already drenched her clothes, now, the wet fabric was clinging to her skin like the grasp of a cold, wet hand.

Without knocking, she entered the governor’s house and waltzed in, the colonists following after her and leaving a trail of wet, dirty puddles all over the floor, but Clara had no time to brace herself or set Sally down before Johnson blocked her path further into his home.

“What’s going on?!” he demanded to know, his voice betraying his fury. He had both his hands firmly on his hips, but even though he towered over her, the storm out there and its consequences scared Clara more than the governor ever could.

Finally, she lowered the young girl to the floor, relieved to be rid of the excess weight. “The barn is damaged,” she reported breathlessly. “These people will have to wait out the storm in here. I will help the men secure your food.”

Johnson opened his mouth again and looked ready to protest, but Clara decided to cut him off before he had a chance.

“Thank you so much for your help,” she said and turned around on her heels, ready to head back into the storm. A part of her waited to hear the governor’s voice, but it never came and Clara ran back outside into the rain.

* * *

The Doctor was a very strange man, Timothy noted even though the storm did its best to keep them busy. Although the hail had stopped, the wind had picked up pace and the rain only increased. When it flooded the barn, Timothy had wanted to run over and come to their aid, but the Doctor had held him back.

“Clara will handle it,” he had yelled at Timothy over the howling wind and quickly busied himself with a cart that needed tying down.

He wiped the rain out of the face even though it was a fruitless task to try to keep the water at bay and helped the Doctor secure the cart, but every now and then, he threw a glance at the stranger. There was something about him that didn’t quite fit and it wasn’t just the way he dressed. Timothy had never seen clothing like that. Everything from the fit of his trousers to the cut of his coat was strange and he doubted that the fashion in England had changed so drastically since he had left the country. The man’s companion, whoever she was to him, dressed in the same odd way and even though the sight of a woman in men’s clothes was foreign to him, Timothy realised he kind of liked it. In fact, the woman the Doctor had arrived with was a very attractive one.

“You put a lot of trust in your daughter,” Timothy remarked in an attempt to find out more about the strangers. They were friendly and helpful, but they were strangers nonetheless.

The Doctor’s head shot up and Timothy found the old man staring at him in a sinister fashion. “Do I look old enough to be her father?” he barked.

The word _yes_ almost slipped from Timothy’s tongue, but he thought better of it. “Clara is your wife, then?”

“She’s my friend and I trust her with my life,” the Doctor corrected him. “You’d be wise to do the same.”

The conversation ended and neither of them seemed to feel the need for smalltalk. When the Doctor had finished tying the knot to hold the cart, Timothy started to look around for the next task, but he couldn’t even see as far as the next house. If he was entirely honest, he just wanted to go inside and dry off.

As if God had answered his silent prayer, the Doctor suddenly grabbed Timothy by the arm and pulled him aside. He was ready to yell at the stranger for the rude behaviour when a branch crashed to the ground right where he had stood a mere moment ago. The Doctor had saved his life.

“We need to get inside!” the Doctor shouted over the storm. He was panting from the exercise in his soaked, heavy coat and Timothy could also feel the weight of his clothing increase by the second.

He nodded.

The nearest house was only a few steps ahead of them, but the storm seemed to push them in the opposite direction as they darted towards the door. With his head bowed and his back bent, Timothy barely saw his own feet, but somehow, they made it. The Doctor reached for the door, but it was the wind that pushed it open for them as they hurried inside.

Timothy uttered a long and heavy sigh when the door closed, instantly realising how cold he had been all this time when the warmth of the house surrounded him at last. Next to him, the Doctor was panting heavily and lowered himself on the nearest chair to catch his breath. For a moment, Timothy was scared he might actually die right on the spot because it was unusual for people to even live to such an old age. Then again, maybe he was younger than he looked, but he figured that asking would probably be impolite.

The Doctor clearly didn’t share his sense of tact as he raised his head and directed a question at him. “So, about those missing people,” he began. “Is there anything you can tell me?”

At first, Timothy was too taken aback by his straightforwardness to reply. But this man could be trusted, couldn’t he? Governor Johnson himself had said that the Doctor and Clara had been sent by the Queen of England to help the colonists in any way they could. Why shouldn’t he trust him? And most importantly, why hadn’t the governor told them?

“I thought you had already spoken to Governor Johnson,” Timothy replied after a while, raising an eyebrow at the stranger.

“The governor likes to keep his cards close to his chest for some stupid reason,” the Doctor said, scoffing. “We’re here to help and we can’t do that unless someone is honest with us. So, tell me what you know.”

Timothy swallowed the lump in his throat, but it wouldn’t quite go away. There was something about the Doctor that made him want to trust the stranger - and at the same time not trust him at all. Maybe he had come to help, but there was more to him than met the eye, there was something he was keeping a secret as well.

“They were all children,” he said eventually and without even meaning to. If the governor hadn’t felt the need to enlighten the Doctor, Timothy shouldn’t either. But he did. “Everyone who disappeared was under the age of 15.”

The Doctor looked surprised, the fact that he hadn’t heard of this before becoming obvious now, but something about it intrigued him as he leaned closer. There was something about the way the stranger looked at him right now that made Timothy think of an interrogation and he shivered under the gaze. Or maybe it was just because his clothes were still wet and he was freezing. The Doctor opened his mouth, but if he said something, the words got lost under the roaring wind that bent the timber above their heads, making it creak and shudder under the strain.

“Is that important?” Timothy wanted to know. “Why would the Croatoans kill a grown man but take the children?”

“I don’t think it was the Croatoans,” the Doctor replied, half growling his answer. “Because they’re also short of some of their children.”

The air felt heavy and it wasn’t just because of the wind. It was the words that had just been spoken and the way the Doctor looked at him as if he had just realised something very important. Timothy could feel it dawn on him, too. Just an idea at first, but as his mind slowly wrapped around it, he was beginning to understand. It wasn’t just the missing children. Everything that had happened to them here was connected in ways he had never seen before. Then, something in his mind clicked and Timothy knew. He knew what was going on.

He parted his lips to tell the Doctor, but as he moved to speak, no sound came out. A deafening noise came down upon them, tearing the air apart, tearing the room apart as the storm finally found a way through the cracks. The force was enough to break it, to rupture what little was holding everything in place and then, the world went dark as the roof collapsed on top of them.


	10. Chapter 9

Even though England was known for its nasty weather and its rain and the coastal region Clara had grown up in had experienced a couple of storms, she had never seen a storm this bad. After doing their best to secure what was left of their food, Clara and a few others waited out the rest of it in the barn and she was surprised at how quickly it all blew over in the end. All the damage the storm had caused and it hadn’t lasted longer than a few hours. Eventually, the sounds on the outside grew quieter. The downpour that had pelted down on the roof was now more of a dribble and the howling storm had weakened to a soft breeze. Finally, Clara and the others were ready to take a look at the damage outside of the barn.

Stepping outside felt like stepping out into a different reality and Clara blinked a few times, unable to reconcile her memory with the image in front of her. The storm had truly wreaked havoc over the little colony and right now, she couldn’t imagine how the people were going to cope. The great fence that had kept them safe in the wilderness of a strange continent had collapsed in more than one area, the large gaps now exposing them to all sorts of threats that might come for them. Some of the trees within the borders still stood, but others had given way under the storm and come down, one of them collapsing right on the roof of one of their houses. Clara blew the air out between her teeth, determined to help them in any way she could.

The Doctor’s voice resounded in her head, that moment he had told the governor to leave and she realised that he had been right in suggesting that. The best solution for them all would be to pack their bags, head into the TARDIS and have the Doctor transport them somewhere safe. She didn’t see how they could rebuild and live with the little food they had left after the storm, but she also didn’t see any of the colonists agreeing to that solution. They were adventurers, but they were also incredibly stubborn, dead set on remaining where they had settled.

As they made their way to the governor’s house, Clara watched the door open and a few hesitant people walked out to take a look at the destruction. She looked at them, saw them breathe in the air and Clara realised she should do the same thing. There was something marvellous about the air after a heavy storm, something fresh that smelled like the planet was reborn, but when she breathed it in, the air had a strange tang to it. Clara tasted it and frowned. She was used to the city air of modern-day London with all its smog and pollution and this was different. It didn’t taste like that. It also didn’t taste like air in the untouched countryside should. There was something metallic about it, something different and utterly unfamiliar. She made a mental note to ask the Doctor about it as soon as he came outside, but to her surprise, he wasn’t among the people stepping out of the house.

“Where is the Doctor?” she asked the governor once she spotted him.

Even during a catastrophe, the man had an air of victory around him, but Clara guessed it was more of a pretence than anything else. Governor Johnson had to keep his countenance to save his people from panic.

The governor seemed surprised by her question at first, then turned his head to have a look around, obviously not spotting the Doctor among his people. When, at last, he turned back towards her, Clara saw the first glimpse of helplessness in his eyes. “He was with Timothy,” he replied hesitantly. “Last I’ve seen they were securing the cart.”

Clara followed his gaze to the building that had collapsed under the tree and when she looked more closely, she saw the cart that had been squashed under the trunk. A wave of fear rose up at the back of her head and for a moment, she pictured herself stranded here with the colonist and whatever had come to threaten them.

“I thought they had gone to the barn,” the governor said, but Clara hardly listened.

If the Doctor and Timothy had decided to seek shelter, they would have sought it in the nearest building - the very one that had been destroyed by the storm. From one moment to the next, Clara knew it for sure. The Doctor was underneath that rubble somewhere. They had to get him out.

She turned her head towards the people she had worked with in the barn and decided to address them directly. “Listen up, guys!” Clara announced and pointed her hand towards the building. “My friend was in there when it collapsed. We have to dig him out and we have to act quickly!”

 _Otherwise I’ll be stuck here with you or we might find him with a different face underneath the rubble_ , Clara thought, but she figured it was wiser not to say it out loud.

Yet none of the colonists moved. Instead, they remained where they stood, throwing glances at each other just as they had when Clara had told them to secure the food. Her fear slowly mixed with anger and she placed her arms on her hips before she scowled in their direction - just as the Doctor would. But the Doctor wasn’t here now, so she had to play his part.

“If you want a chance at saving your little colony, you should do as I say!” Clara told them sternly, determinedly. “I helped you save your food and now I need your help in saving the Doctor. You’re lost without him!”

“The Doctor is likely dead already,” the governor said, stepping a little closer. When he attempted to place his hand on her shoulder, Clara evaded his touch.

“The Doctor is tougher than he looks,” Clara replied, throwing a dark gaze towards Governor Johnson. “And he needs our help. Don’t think he wouldn’t do the exact same thing for you because he would. For any of you.”

Once again, she looked at the colonists, particularly the ones she had helped inside the barn. They were reluctant, but when the first volunteer stepped forward, Clara knew that she had won.

A handful of men took charge, ignoring the governor’s arguments that they were out on a pointless endeavour, and started digging through the rubble. Clara helped where she could, but soon realised that she wasn’t strong enough to lift any of the beams that had buried the Doctor underneath it, so instead, she aided the men in tying a rope around the tree trunk to move it, all the while praying that they wouldn’t make matters worse.

“If the Doctor and Timothy were still alive under all of that, we’d hear them,” the governor whispered into her ear when she stopped to take a breath.

Clara felt her heart ache at the thought of it, but she pushed it aside as quickly as possible. The Doctor couldn’t actually die, could he? No, Clara needed to tell herself that at worse, he would regenerate, but the prospect wasn’t a cheerful one either. She had already lost her Doctor once, she had watched him change and become a whole new person. Yes, she had learned to love him eventually and she had little doubt that she would love his next version as well, but that didn’t mean she was ready to say goodbye to her grey-haired stick insect. Clara was a lot fonder of him than she cared to admit.

“We got something!” one of the men shouted as he lifted up a beam to toss it aside.

Clara’s heart leapt and she darted forward, climbing the pile of rubble to get a better look. As much as she wanted Timothy to be safe, she was praying for it to be the Doctor they pulled out of that mess.

As she bent over the gap in the rubble, a weight dropped off her shoulders as the familiar head of grey curls came into view and his boney hand extended, asking to be helped outside. She breathed a sigh of relief when the Doctor climbed out into view, dusty and with a nasty gash on his forehead, but otherwise unharmed. Without thinking about it, Clara climbed up to him and threw her arms around his neck in a tight embrace, not caring in the least about how much he disliked hugs. Besides, they usually made an exception for moments in which they had thought the other was dead.

The Doctor grunted in her arms and she released him, but when she looked at him, Clara noticed his smile. He was relieved to see her unharmed, too.

“Careful,” he said. “The storm tried its best to kill me, don’t finish it by breaking my neck.”

She chuckled in response, but the Doctor’s expression soon grew serious again and she knew that their brief moment of relief was over and she was back in the colony that was damaged, maybe beyond repair, with an alien threat looming over their heads.

“Timothy,” the Doctor suddenly said as if he had only just remembered the name and he turned his back on her.

Along with the other men, the Doctor started digging through the rubble, lifting up stones and woodwork, fighting his way through the remains of the hut to look for the man still trapped underneath it all. Clara couldn’t tell how much time had passed since the collapse, she couldn’t even say how long they had already been digging for, but somehow, she could feel it in her heart long before the confirmation came. It settled heavily around her heart as if a ball and chain were dragging it down into the depths of an ocean and the sorrow settled over her.

“Timothy is dead,” one of the men announced gravely.

The Doctor straightened his back, lifting himself up over the body of the young man and wiped his forehead. If he noticed the blood, he didn’t pay any further attention to it, his gaze set on the dead man in front of him. It felt like a blow in the gut they had already been beaten several times. The missing children. The storm. The loss of their safety, their food, and now Timothy. Clara hadn’t even known the man and she still felt the sadness of grief that seemed to follow them around wherever they went and she knew what grief felt like. After her mother, after Danny, it was something she would never forget. Grief and loss accompanied her every single day like an old friend lurking in the shadows and now, grief had come to the colony of Roanoke. It would stay with the people forever.

A sudden sound startled her and it made Clara spin around to look for the source of it. It was a strange and yet familiar tone and she wasn’t entirely sure what it was until the horn was blown a second time and she recognised it for what it was.

In a matter of seconds, the mood seemed to have shifted and the colonists’ eyes were set on the gaps in their fence. The scent of metal that had clung to the air until now vanished suddenly and was replaced by a whiff of fear. Just like that, the next blow was heading towards Roanoke.

“Take arms!” Governor Johnson’s voice shouted above the silence. “We’re under attack!”


	11. Chapter 10

Clara decided to stay as close to the Doctor as was possible in the turmoil around them and as she reached for his hand, she felt his grip tighten around her fingers, squeezing softly. It was meant to be reassuring, but it did little to make her feel better as the armed men built a wall around the women and children and everyone too old or tired to fight. She glanced up at the Doctor to see his reaction, to see whether he would protest and try to negotiate a peace, but if anything, he looked curious as if he was waiting to see what was going to happen.

The tension around them grew with the approaching sound of horses and the armed men closed ranks, not giving anyone the chance to attack their women or children. Clara thought that the notion was sweet if a little outdated for her time. After all, she had probably been in more fights than any of them by now, not to mention the many aliens she had faced during her travels with the Doctor. If anyone handed her a weapon, Clara would know how to use it - and the Doctor would stare at her disapprovingly. Unless, of course, their lives were in danger.

When the voices accompanying the clatter of hooves became audible, Clara pushed herself up on tiptoes to look past the colonists. It was harder than she would have thought because they all towered over her, but as she watched the Doctor’s mouth fall open, she knew that couldn’t be a good sign. The men tightened their circle around them and finally, Clara spotted their attackers. She uttered a sound of surprise as well. The men riding through the damaged fence were no others than the Croatoans, led by Chief himself.

They had come to attack the colony when it was at its most vulnerable.

Clara watched the colonists tighten their grip around their weapons, bracing themselves for the inevitable attack while the Croatoans closed in on them, leading their horses to ride around the circle they had formed. It seemed almost like a parade as the Natives circled them like vultures, demonstrating their strength and superiority and Clara felt her blood boil with anger. Despite the abduction, the Croatoans and, above all, Chief had seemed nice, not at all like the kind of people who would wait for a moment of weakness to attack the people they had previously helped. But then again, the colonists had attacked them first. In a way, it seemed only fair, but Clara still hated being in the middle of it once again.

At last, Chief brought his horse to a halt and he dismounted easily, keeping his eyes on the Governor at all times as he landed on his feet and approached the crowd of armed colonists. If he felt fear, he didn’t show it.

Suddenly, her hand seemed heavier than before and Clara looked to her right and realised that the Doctor had let go of it and stepped forward, ready to address Chief.

“There’s no need for violence,” the Doctor called out and she knew that he was talking to both the colonists as well as the Natives. “We were all hit by the storm and quite badly so. Let’s call a truce for now, shall we? We shouldn’t have any reason to hurt the other at times like these!”

For the first time since his arrival, Chief took his eyes off the Governor to look at the Doctor and if Clara wasn’t entirely mistaken, she spotted amusement on his face. She couldn’t quite place it.

Chief continued to stare at the Doctor for a while longer and Clara’s heart grew heavier by the second as she imagined the Natives’ imminent attack. However, Chief surprised her by bursting into laughter.

“Do you see any weapons?” he asked, still laughing and spreading his arms.

Clara squinted her eyes at him, at all of them and realised that he was right. None of them was carrying a weapon of any kind. Her anger and her fear gave way to confusion and she wondered why on earth they had come, why they had put on such a display… to do nothing.

Next to her, the Doctor frowned, obviously as confused as she was.

“We came to help,” Chief explained a moment later, his voice soft and compassionate. That was the man they had met upon their arrival. That was the strong but kind leader of the Croatoans. “We thought the storm might have done some damage and it seems we were right. We want to help you in any way we can.”

“We don’t need your help!” The Governor had finally woken up from the shock of the Natives’ arrival and he stepped forward, making his way through the colonists until he came to a halt right next to Chief.

Governor Johnson was a tall, broad man and Clara could tell that he was trying his best to tower over the Croatoan, but he didn’t quite reach up to the Native’s height. Clara suppressed a chuckle.

“Now, now,” the Doctor said, stepping up to the two of them. “Maybe you should take a look at your fence and rethink your answer.”

“They took our children!” the governor shouted angrily, pointing his finger straight at Chief. “Why would we accept their help? So they can walk in here and take the rest of them, too?!”

The Native moved towards the governor, but the Doctor stepped between them before the situation could escalate. For a long moment, no one said a word and the Doctor kept shifting his glance from Governor Johnson to Chief and back, glowering at both of them. Clara had seen that look on his face before and by now, she knew what the Doctor was feeling at this moment. After all the violence they had seen, all the fights and misunderstandings and pointless arguments, she knew that he was tired of fighting for peace where war wasn’t even necessary.

“Get out of my way,” Governor Johnson hissed eventually, “so I can bring these savages to justice.”

“Some of our children are missing as well,” Chief said, holding his head high to impress the colonists. It would have worked on Clara, but she wasn’t entirely sure about the governor.

There they stood, one side pointing weapons at the other, both of them flinging accusations into the air and Clara got the distinct feeling that whatever had happened to the children, it had nothing to do with the Natives or the colonists. Someone or something else was stealing children and instead of looking for who was behind all of it, they clung to the easiest explanation and blamed each other.

The Doctor suddenly cleared his throat. “At the risk of pointing out the obvious, but have any of you actually tried looking for the children?”

He raised his eyebrows at Johnson and Chief and both of them had suddenly gone very quiet.

“I mean, apart from that time the colonists attacked the native settlement,” the Doctor added.

Governor Johnson drew in a sharp breath. “Of course we’ve looked,” he spat. “But it’s like they dropped off the face of the earth.”

“We couldn’t find a trace,” Chief added. “We sent our best trackers and found nothing. Their trail just vanished into thin air and the forest is…”

The Native broke off, but Clara thought she knew what he had meant to say. The forest was eerie and no one actually liked going in there. Whatever it was, it remained in the atmosphere around them, in the strange, metallic smell of the air. They could feel it, too.

“Alright,” the Doctor concluded and exhaled sharply. “Clara and I will find out what happened to your children. Her Majesty the Queen sent us to help and that’s what we’ll do, but in the meantime, can we please try not to kill each other?”

His voice had sounded kind when he had started his sentence, but it had lost its patience as he went on. Yes, the Doctor was definitely tired of fighting for peace and this incarnation seemed to have a limited amount of patience.

“You’re both missing some of your people and I think we can all agree that it’s unlikely either one of you is responsible for that. So, for now, let’s be friendly and help each other out, okay?”

Chief nodded almost instantly and it didn’t surprise Clara. He had come here with the intention to help and she had little doubt that it was what he still intended to do. Governor Johnson, however, hesitated.

“Okay?” the Doctor pressed.

The governor uttered a growl. “Fine,” he replied eventually.

Still, the Doctor continued to raise his eyebrows at him, shooting him an expectant look. “You’re fine with it because…?”

“Because we could actually use some help rebuilding the fence and our people won’t be safe until we fix it,” Governor Johnson admitted grudgingly.

Clara felt startled by the sound when the Doctor suddenly clapped his hands together and jumped forward, a bright, almost manic smile on his face, his enthusiasm somehow invigorated by the truce. “Okay, everyone, let’s get to work. You guys repair the fence and I’m going to need a cup of tea, some jelly babies and to talk to someone whose kid went missing.”

While the colonists exchanged a couple of confused glances, Clara winced at the Doctor’s requests. She finally stepped up to him again and came to a halt at his side, ready to go and find out what had happened to the missing children.

“I think we can skip the tea and jelly babies,” she told him quietly.

“Right,” the Doctor agreed and took a deep breath. Finally, they were going to start solving the mystery of the missing children.


	12. Chapter 11

The room exuded a modest, somber atmosphere and Clara got the distinct impression that the governor had chosen it deliberately, assigning them to the simplest room he could find in the colony so they wouldn’t get too comfortable. Everything was made out of wood from the floor to the uncomfortable chairs they sat down in. There wasn’t even the simplest piece of decor to take their mind off the subject, but maybe, that was the whole point. The longer she thought about it, the more suitable the room seemed to talk about the missing children.

They had formed a kind of circle with their chairs, staring at each other, not quite knowing how to begin. Clara, the Doctor, one of the Croatoans and a tired looking, middle-aged man from the colony - two of the people who had lost their child to whatever was out there in the forest. Clara looked at them and saw how the loss of their children had left its mark in their eyes and on a few lines on their faces that surely hadn’t been there before. She decided to go ahead.

“What are your names?” she wanted to know, her voice filled with as much kindness as she could muster. Just because they were pressed for time didn’t mean they had to neglect the fact that they were people who had experienced a great loss.

“My name is Chesmu,” the Native said. Clara knew that he spoke English and that it wasn’t the TARDIS translating for him because of the strong accent. Somehow, it made her admire him because he had learned the language quite well since the colonists’ arrival.

“And I’m Geoffrey Smith, the blacksmith in this colony. My boy Michael was the last child to-”

The man broke off, lowering his head as if he wasn’t ready to face the truth of his missing son yet. If there was anything the Doctor and Clara could do to help them, they would.

“I need you to tell me everything you know,” the Doctor said and his voice sounded unnecessarily harsh. Clara nudged him softly in the ribs, but he ignored it and went on. “When your child went missing, where they went, what they were doing, everything you can think of that might help us find out what happened to them.”

Clara noticed how careful the Doctor was with his words and she found herself swallowing hard. He didn’t promise them their children’s safe return, he didn’t promise that they would find them. The Doctor only ever said that they would do their best to find out what had happened to them, but never that they would be returned alive so as not to give them a false sense of hope.

Then, the Doctor pointed towards Chesmu. “You go first.”

The Croatoan took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts before he started talking - or looking for the right words in a language that wasn’t his own. “I sent them to gather firewood,” Chesmu replied eventually. “They put up a fight, complained they’d rather practice fighting with the rest of the boys, said they were old enough now, but I didn’t listen. They were angry, they don’t understand yet that supplying food and shelter and warmth is as important as defending your family from danger, so I told them to return with firewood or not return at all.”

The way the Croatoan averted his eyes made Clara think that he felt ashamed, that he probably blamed himself for the disappearance, but before she could tell him that none of it was his fault, the man continued.

“They took the boat to the mainland. We found it abandoned that night when we went to look for them.”

The Doctor seemed to consider his words carefully, a deep frown lining his forehead as he processed what the Croatoan had told him. Clara didn’t even attempt to understand what might have happened because the longer she stayed in this place, the more a certain feeling started to creep up on here. Whatever had taken the children, it was beyond her comprehension.

“Has it happened before?” the Doctor wanted to know.

Chesmu shook his head. “We are a family, the whole tribe. They know that on their own, they’re defenceless.”

“Teenagers can be stubborn sometimes.”

It was clear from the expression on his face that the Native didn’t understand the word, but he still continued. “They’re gone,” he announced, his voice grave, but it was the statement itself that sparked Clara’s attention.

“What do you mean? Gone?”

“They no longer dwell on this plane,” Chesmu explained. “Their spirits no longer connect to the Earth.”

Clara turned her head to look at the Doctor and found that he had done the same. They exchanged glances with each other for a moment, bewildered, frowning. She had so many questions on her mind - did Chesmu believe the children were dead, did he believe they had left the earth - but since she had started travelling with the Doctor, Clara knew that anything could be possible.

At last, the Doctor nodded towards the colonist. “What about you? What happened to your son?”

Geoffrey Smith inhaled sharply and blew the air out between his teeth before he began. “A couple of weeks ago, Henson’s child vanished under the same circumstances. His girl was the first to go missing. They both went outside the fence and she didn’t come back.”

“Where is he now?” the Doctor demanded to know.

The blacksmith merely shook his head, indicating that Henson’s spirit, as Chesmu had put it, no longer connected to the Earth.

“And what about your child? Your boy?”

His hands were trembling as they desperately searched for something to do and Clara could tell that the man was close to tears, trying his best not to cry in front of them.

“After what had happened with Henson’s girl, we were careful not to let any of the children outside on their own, but my boy, Michael, he loved to go out into the woods,” Geoffrey Smith explained. “He must have sneaked out while no one was looking and-”

Once more, he broke off, unable to finish his sentence. Chesmu had had weeks to come to terms with what had happened to his children, but for the blacksmith, the wound was still too fresh to accept it. Clara hoped that whatever they found out, it would help them get their children back - or at least, their peace of mind.

“Was anyone with Michael when he disappeared?” the Doctor asked.

The blacksmith didn’t respond immediately. A strange expression crossed over his face, something deep and contemplative. Then, his featured went completely blank. “No,” he said. “I don’t think so.”

The Doctor had seen the expression, too, and he leaned forward to take a closer look at Geoffrey Smith. “Are you sure about that?”

The blacksmith nodded. “Yes, Michael didn’t have a lot of friends. He went out there on his own.”

There was nothing more to be gained by talking to Chesmu and Geoffrey Smith, so the Doctor and Clara eventually headed back outside and walked towards the open gap where the gate had once been to take a look at the colony’s surroundings. She noticed that the colonists had already started to repair it with the help of the Croatoans. However, Clara also noticed that the Time Lord was awfully quiet as they walked. She wanted to ask, but she didn’t even have to when the Doctor just came out with it.

“He was lying,” he said, a hint of anger in his voice. “I don’t know why and what he’s keeping from us, but Michael wasn’t alone out there when he vanished.”

“I had the same impression,” Clara admitted, only now realising that it was how she had interpreted his behaviour as well.

“But I’m not sure he’s lying to us on purpose.” There was something about his statement that sounded mysterious as if he himself wasn’t quite sure what it implied. “There’s something terribly wrong around here and it’s not just the missing children, it’s everything.”

Clara craned her neck to look at him as they stepped outside the colony’s bounds. A shiver ran down her spine as they left the pretend safety of the broken fence and she could feel that she was stepping out into the unknown, exposing herself to whatever had taken the children, to whatever was tormenting the people around here.

“Would you say the weather we’ve experienced is typical for this area?” the Doctor asked her, turning his head to look straight at Clara with his eyebrows raised.

She hated being quizzed by him like that when she couldn’t possibly know the answer. All Clara could do was guess, so she merely shrugged.

“It’s not,” he answered his own question. His eyes left her to stare at the path ahead of them. “The colonists said they had suffered a long drought and now the storm. Also, have you noticed that smell?”

Clara frowned. “You mean the strange, metallic tang?” she wanted to know just to be sure.

“Something is messing with the atmosphere and it’s causing the severe weather, something that isn’t natural and should absolutely not be in this time and place,” the Doctor explained, picking up pace to head deeper into the forest.

Suddenly, Clara felt highly alert. Once again, there was an alien threat and they were going to find out exactly what it was. They were going to find out what had happened to the missing children and for a brief moment, Clara felt guilty about her own excitement. But then again… a new adventure, whatever it was, was always exciting. She skipped ahead and followed the Doctor, knowing that whoever was threatening the world now, they would soon be sorry about that.


	13. Chapter 12

The forest was alive with the sounds of spring. Despite whatever was going on, Clara could still feel life all around her in the rustling leaves and scurrying of small animals in the undergrowth. The song of birds surrounded their path as they walked on the mainland where the small boat borrowed from the colonists had taken them. It was as if the previous storm had washed everything clean and if it hadn’t been for the looming alien threat, Clara might have considered this trip a peaceful vacation. Her job came back to her mind, the most recent papers on her desk that she still had to grade and everything about it seemed so far away whenever she stepped into the Doctor’s blue box that this life of hers might as well have belonged to somebody else.

“What are we looking for?” Clara asked, suddenly remembering that she was following the Doctor without even knowing his plan even though, to be fair, that was the case most of the time. Despite his unpredictability, despite his often rude behaviour, she trusted him. But that didn’t mean he always had a plan.

In response, the Doctor turned his head and threw her a glance, that small look of astonishment and excitement, paired with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“We don’t know yet,” she confirmed.

“I’ll know when I see it,” the Doctor said and marched on, deeper into the forest. As he did, he pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket that was still emitting a soft, green glow and it chirped when he pressed one of the buttons.

Clara wanted to ask what he was doing, what he was scanning for, but she knew that he would let her know all that as soon as he was ready and it seemed that he wasn’t yet. Sometimes, she really hated that he liked to play his cards so close to his chest even in front of her, but right now, she didn’t even mind. Surrounded by the birdsong and the beautiful spring forest, Clara felt content just taking a walk.

“I’ve been picking up a signal ever since I started scanning the area,” the Doctor explained after a while. “It was weak at first, but it’s getting stronger, so we’re headed in the right direction.”

Raising her eyebrows at him didn’t help because the Time Lord was fixated on his favourite tool, so she just decided to go ahead and ask. “What kind of signal?”

Eye still on the sonic, the Doctor inhaled deeply. “Not sure. Could be anything, really,” he said with a soft laugh. The unknown, the unpredictable always managed to excite him and Clara knew why that was. After travelling the universe for over 2000 years, she imagined that it was becoming rarer and rarer to find something he had never seen before and while Clara had only been with the Doctor for a few years compared to the amount of time he had already lived, she had run into the same kind of monster more often than she would have liked. The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Ice Warriors, the Zygons - all of those kept coming back with a new plan to cause havoc and she couldn’t say that she liked that very much even though they kept on beating them. Sometimes, Clara was afraid that one day, they wouldn’t, that one day, the bad guys would win. Then again, a familiar foe meant that they already knew its weakness whereas something new and foreign was always exciting as well as dangerous.

“It’s not something I’ve ever come across before,” the Doctor admitted after examining the sonic for a while. “The signal is… calling out to something or someone.”

“Like a distress call? Someone in need of help?”

“Could be,” he replied thoughtfully and when he looked at her again, the frown lines on his forehead had deepened and the look on his face made her shiver. “Or a call to arms.”

Suddenly, the air around them felt colder and Clara instinctively reached up to cover her arms with her hands, not that it really provided much more warmth. Then, the sonic flashed up and the Doctor lowered his eyes to look at the device.

“Whatever it is, we’re about to find out,” he said, a broad grin spreading across his face and Clara felt her skin tingle with excitement.

Holding the sonic in front of him like a compass, the Doctor followed the signal to its point of origin and Clara walked a few steps behind him, taking cover behind the back of the Time Lord that was a little harder to kill than her. At first, she didn’t even notice. She never paid any attention to the silence that was beginning to engulf them like a cloak, but as they moved on, Clara began to realise that the rustling in the undergrowth had stopped as if no animal dare to tread so close to the signal’s source. The birdsong stopped, too, telling her that they were venturing into dangerous territory and even the birds were scared to fly over it. Whatever it was, she couldn’t see it.

“What’s happening?” Clara tried to ask, but as she opened her mouth, she couldn’t hear a thing. At first, she thought that she may have gone deaf, but when the Doctor didn’t react to her question or her attempt to yell at him, she knew that the sound had never travelled past her lips.

Quickly, she stepped forward and grabbed the Doctor by the arm, startling him with the sudden physical contact. He spun around and she tried to ask her question once more, but no sound came out. None that either of them could hear.

Frowning, the Doctor opened his mouth to respond and he looked even more surprised when the words got stuck in his throat. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong and Clara looked around nervously, realising only now that they were completely exposed out here in the forest. They could still see, but they would never hear any kind of danger in its approach.  
The Doctor mouthed something and for a moment, Clara had hoped that it was the suggestion to turn around, but when he held up his sonic again and continued to follow the flashing, green light, she knew that he was still tracking down the signal - and probably whatever was causing the muted atmosphere.

They walked for a while longer and Clara had taken the Doctor’s hand in the process, determined not to let go whatever happened. The silence around them never lifted, the birds didn’t return and she was sure that whatever was sending the signal was doing this to keep everything and everyone away from the source. It didn’t make sense, however. Why call for something or someone only to do your best to keep everything away?

Then, the Doctor came to an abrupt halt and Clara stopped next to him, raising her eyebrows in question as the Doctor nodded forward. Her confusion only grew because there was nothing to be seen apart from the trees and the setting sun that was scattering its light through the leaves. She wanted to ask, fully aware of how fruitless it was while she had no voice, but then she saw it. It was only a flicker at first, like a shadow caught in the corner of her eye that disappeared once she looked at it properly, but when Clara focused her eyes on the spot, it was beginning to become clearer.

“What is it?” she asked silently, marvelling at the strange shape that was there and wasn’t at the same time.

In reply to her moving mouth, the Doctor reached into his pocket and searched for something, eventually pulling out the little wallet that held the psychic paper. Of course! How could she have forgotten about the one means of communication that they had still left?

When the Doctor held it up to her, it read: “Spaceship. Perception filter.”

So that was what had sent the signal even though they still didn’t know whether it was a call for help or something a lot more sinister. Clara reached out and took the psychic paper from the Doctor to answer him. When her hands touched the wallet, the writing started to change, spelling out “I’m scared”. Clara shook it, focusing her thoughts on what she really wanted it to say before she held it in his direction.

“What do we do?”

The Doctor took the wallet back, but instead of using it to reply, he pocketed it again and nodded towards the ship. Clara didn’t need to see it in writing to know that he was planning to have a closer look and despite her fear, she followed him.

The closer they came to the ship, the clearer the image became as if the perception filter slowly faded as soon as they had figured it out and looked past it, but the image in front of her was unlike anything she had ever seen. During her adventures with the Doctor, Clara had lost count of how many spaceships she had seen in her life - definitely more than the average human being, but this contraption was something new and as far as spaceship designs went, Clara thought that it was beautiful.

There was an elegance to the ship that was rare for this kind of vehicle and the size of it was more than a little impressive. She was used to a variety of shapes and sizes, the strangest of it being the Doctor’s own TARDIS with its old-fashioned police box exterior, but other spaceships she had seen were ugly and bulky and built for purpose and not for beauty. This was different. It stood almost as tall as the trees on four silver legs that could be used as ladders and the body itself was reflecting the light, mirroring its surroundings. It was large and sleek and before Clara could begin to wonder what it looked like on the inside, the Doctor had started to climb up the ladder.

She wasn’t entirely sure whether it was a good idea to just enter an alien spaceship without knocking, but not knowing what else to do, she followed after him. A small hatch at the end of the ladder blocked their entrance, but it opened upon the touch of his hand and slid aside to reveal the spaceship’s interior. Taking a deep breath, Clara followed the Doctor inside.  
It was clear as soon as she was inside that they had entered the cockpit of the craft because Clara spotted two seats and an array of buttons and switches and monitors, all of which were blinking and flashing in different colours. Clara once more marvelled at the design of it all because it had clearly been built for aesthetics and not for comfort. Everything about it was minimalistic and clean as if the Bauhaus movement had been contracted to develop a spaceship.

The Doctor bent down to examine the cockpit and the flashing lights a little further, but whether he came to a conclusion or not, Clara didn’t know and instead, she decided to explore the ship for herself, but something in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

Just as she had glimpsed the spaceship itself in the woods, she saw a shadow move towards them, but when she spun around to look, it had gone. At first, she thought her mind had played a trick on her, but then she remembered what the Doctor had told her through the psychic paper. Perception filter.

As soon as she realised what was happening, the alien creature became clearer, a distorted shape coming towards her from the back of the ship and Clara tried to scream in panic, but no sound came out of her mouth. With nothing else left to do, she grabbed the Doctor’s arm and pulled him towards the hatch, praying to every god in the universe that they would be quicker than whatever was after them.


	14. Chapter 13

Descending the ladder seemed to take a lot longer than the ascent earlier and Clara kept looking up, waiting to see the strange alien again, waiting to see it follow them, but she never did, but the most unnerving part of it all was that she couldn’t be sure whether it meant they were safe. The perception filter had successfully hidden the alien from her in the first place, so even if it was there, Clara would never know because she could neither see nor hear it.

Luckily for her, the Doctor followed without protest and as soon as they had solid ground under their feet again, they started to run. After all those years with the Doctor, Clara had become good at running and she didn’t stop even when her lungs ached and her legs were ready to collapse underneath her. They ran and ran and ran back towards the colony, towards the only kind of safety available in this place. Then, the Doctor suddenly stopped.

Clara paused, looking around frantically, looking around to see whether the alien had followed and only now did she notice the sounds. Breathing a sigh of relief, Clara allowed herself to rest.  
When her lungs no longer stung and her panting breaths had returned to normal, she was finally able to take in her surroundings. She could hear her own breath, she could hear the birdsong and the rustling leaves. For now, they were out of danger.

“What the hell was that?” Clara demanded to know. “What the hell is going on here? The muted sounds? The hidden spaceship and the alien we couldn’t see? Did _you_ see it?”

The Doctor nodded, a grave expression on his face.

“Was the alien using the same kind of perception filter?” she asked.

He hesitated for a short moment, glancing at Clara as if he wasn’t sure whether she would like the answer. “No,” he replied eventually. “That’s just what it looks like, I think.”

“It didn’t look like anything,” Clara responded, surprised at how angry she sounded when really, she was only afraid. It was strange how these two emotions were so closely connected. “I just saw a distorted shape, that’s it.”

The Doctor scoffed. “Trust me, I’ve seen stranger creatures,” he said, not helping her fear in the slightest.

Whatever it was, it had come after them and not having a proper shape didn’t mean it couldn’t be dangerous or even deadly. Who knew what this thing might get up to when it had the power to mute everything in a two-mile radius or hide a spaceship so no one else could see it.

“You don’t know what this thing is either, do you?” Clara wanted to know.

The Doctor didn’t reply instantly. Instead, he lifted his hand to his face and started gnawing at his thumbnail as he often did when he was thinking hard about something. So Clara bided her time and waited, using the moment to catch her breath and give her aching legs some rest.

“Whatever it is, I think it’s in trouble,” he concluded eventually. “I didn’t have time to examine the entire ship, but from what I’ve seen, their reactor broke down and is currently leaking radiation into the atmosphere. That’s what’s causing the weather and the storms. I don’t think it’s actually planning an invasion of any kind.”

She took a moment to let his words sink in, somehow not finding his explanation of leaking radiation very reassuring. Even if the alien’s intentions weren’t bad, it sounded like a dangerous thing to be around - dangerous for herself, the colonists and the Croatoans, all of whom were completely unaware of the kind of danger that was lurking in the forest they used to hunt and gather firewood. Which brought her straight to her next question.

“It attacked us,” Clara tried to argue, “and it probably attacked the children as well. Remember _them_? Remember the children that went missing? What if the alien took them and… I don’t know, ate them?”

The Doctor looked thoughtful, obviously considering her words very carefully. “We’ll figure it out in time,” he said eventually. “But for now, I think we should get back to the colony just in case the alien is indeed hungry for human flesh.”

Clara breathed a sigh of relief and followed the Doctor as he started to head back towards the boat. “Or Time Lord flesh,” she remarked.

In response, the Doctor snorted. “Time Lords are inedible,” he said plainly.

“Naturally,” Clara replied, but not without rolling her eyes at him a little. Inedible and very often insufferable as well.

The Doctor and Clara took the small boat back to the island, spending most of their time in silence after saying what needed to be said, but on the inside, Clara’s mind was bustling with thoughts and ideas and fears. She couldn’t know what the Doctor was up to at this point, what exactly he was planning, but from the contemplative look on his face, she knew that he was planning _something_.

The sun had already set when they reached the colony and what was left of the fence stood in the twilight like a forgotten monument, left to fall into oblivion. Even though the Croatoans had come to their aid, it would be a while until the fence shielded the colonists from anything. Right now, it merely offered a pretend sense of security. Despite that, Clara knew that she would sleep well after the events of the day - at least after she had managed to ban the memory of the shape alien from her mind. She was craving a meal and a few hours in a warm, soft bed.

However, the prospect of rest faded the closer they came to their assigned house and Clara spotted a man waiting for them by the front door. It wasn’t the loathsome governor, but a smaller, more nervous figure that was pacing the space in front of their door, his hand raised to his face to nibble at his thumb. Clara couldn’t recognise him yet in the twilight, but she knew that his presence and his nervous state were unlikely to bode well for her and the Doctor. When he noticed them in their approach and stepped forward out of the shadow, Clara recognised him at last. It was Geoffrey Smith, the man whose boy had gone missing.

“I need to speak with you,” he blurted out immediately, his voice frantic and tense. He was on edge about something.

The Doctor had noticed it, too. He threw Clara a quick glance before he nodded towards the man, gesturing for him to go ahead and tell them what was bothering him.

Geoffrey Smith, however, glanced around the village and hesitated. Something was holding him back, keeping him from saying whatever he had come to say out here in the open.

“Or we could go inside first,” Clara suggested upon sensing the man’s fear. After the events of the day, an uneasy feeling had settled over her and she, too, was very much in favour of retreating to a safe place.

“Yes,” the blacksmith agreed and following the Doctor’s lead, they all stepped into the small house while Clara was beginning to wonder whether their already dangerous and complicated adventure was about to become even more dangerous. She knew that it all depended on what Geoffrey Smith was going to tell them.


	15. Chapter 14

Geoffrey Smith took a seat at the small table, the Doctor was pacing the floor in front of the fireplace and Clara realised that at this point, she would normally offer their shaken guest some tea, but even though they had a pot and a hearth, she didn’t know where she was supposed to get the tea from. She decided to just sit down at the opposite end of the table. At last, the Doctor had had enough from his pacing and came to a halt, arms crossed in front of his chest and his impatient glance directed at Geoffrey Smith.

“So, what is it?” he demanded to know, his voice harsh.

The blacksmith sat up straight and cleared his throat as Clara watched him search for the right words. He obviously didn’t quite know where to begin and the uneasiness in her chest grew. After the events of the day, she could only guess what madness had happened next.

“Anytime,” the Doctor went on, gesturing towards the man in an attempt to make him talk.

Clara was about to scold the Time Lord for his rude behaviour when Geoffrey Smith was obviously struggling to come out with whatever had happened to him, but before she had a chance, the blacksmith finally began to talk.

“I didn’t tell you the truth about the disappearance of Michael,” he admitted, lowering his head towards the table’s surface as if something interesting could be found there. He looked ashamed, but Clara didn’t understand why. “I didn’t mean to lie to you, it’s just… I… it’s hard.”

Without really thinking about it, Clara reached across the table and took the man’s hand, giving it a soft squeeze in an attempt to comfort him. She threw a soft smile in his direction. “I know,” she said in a hushed voice. “I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through right now. We’re trying our best to help you, but we need you to be honest with us about it, okay? Lying to us won’t bring your son back.”

Finally, the blacksmith’s head shot back up and he looked confused as well as a little affronted. “I didn’t lie,” he replied immediately. “At least not intentionally. I just forgot. It’s difficult for me to remember it.”

Clara frowned at him in response. “Remember what?”

Suddenly, the Doctor took a step closer and when he spoke, his voice had a hint of curiosity in it. “The events surrounding your son’s disappearance,” he answered in Geoffrey’s place. “It’s all a bit fuzzy, isn’t it? Like trying to recount a dream after waking up?”

The Doctor knew something, Clara determined right then and there. He had made some sort of connection and was on the verge of figuring it out while she was left feeling dumb.

“What?” she asked. “What’s happening here?”

“Perception filter,” he replied simply and took a seat at the table at last, joining Clara and the blacksmith in their conversation instead of seeming like the alien bystander he was. Then, he turned his attention towards Geoffrey Smith. “Please, try to focus and tell us what you remember. This is important.”

Clara watched Geoffrey swallow before he took a deep breath and started to tell them what he had come to tell. “There was a girl,” he began. “When Michael vanished, he was with a girl. I don’t know why I forgot about that, but she came to me and told me what had happened.”

Even though she didn’t understand what was going on, even though Clara couldn’t fathom how on earth Geoffrey was able to forget about such an important detail, she leaned a little closer. “Who was she?” Clara wanted to know.

The blacksmith merely shrugged. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “I don’t think I had seen her before that and I don’t think I’ve seen her afterwards. She isn’t part of the colony even though-”  
He broke off, but the Doctor gestured for him to continue.

“She was dressed like she belonged to us, she _looked_ and _talked_ like she belonged to us, so when she came to me, I thought I knew her, I thought it was the most natural thing in the world, but then I forgot and now-”

Geoffrey drew in a sharp breath and exhaled it between his teeth, obviously at a loss about what he had experienced. Clara couldn’t blame him, but before she had a chance to comfort him and reassure him that everything was going to be okay, she suddenly felt the Doctor’s hand on her arm and he was pulling her up. She followed him willingly as he dragged her into a corner, away from Geoffrey, out of earshot so they could talk in private. When he spoke, his voice was nothing but a whisper that ran down her spine and left her skin rippled with goosebumps.

“I was right. It’s the perception filter,” the Doctor explained.

Still, Clara didn’t fully understand what the spaceship and the alien had to do with what had happened to Geoffrey, but slowly, it was beginning to dawn on her and the idea that an alien might be among them, perfectly camouflaged so as not to be noticed, gave her the creeps. If the alien - whatever it was - had the ability to blend in with its surroundings, it could be anyone, any _thing_. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack where the needle might or might not be dangerous and willing to attack them.

“So you’re saying that this alien lives among the colonists?” Clara asked just to be certain she wasn’t freaking out over nothing.

“I think so,” the Doctor replied carefully. “We saw a rather big spaceship, I think there could have been more than one alien on board and who knows, maybe one got bored and decided to live with the colonists like a milkman’s child.”

“If the perception filter fooled Geoffrey, they’d never know,” she said and realised how awestruck her voice sounded. A part of her admired the creature even though it was still scary. “It could be anyone.”

The Doctor nodded gravely.

“But what does any of that have to do with the missing children?” she wanted to know. A weird idea popped into her head and she didn’t know whether it made sense or not. “Are they trying to replace the colonists? Swap a human child for an alien one?”

“No idea, but we can ask the girl once we find out,” the Doctor answered with a shrug. “I bet she has a couple of interesting stories to tell, don’t you think?”

“More like scary tales,” Clara argued.

Without replying to her, the Doctor spun back around to where Geoffrey Smith was still sitting at the table, twiddling his nervous thumbs and eyeing them cautiously as if awaiting a verdict.

“There’s no subtle way to tell you this, but it appears that there is an alien living among you,” the Doctor said.

Clara’s head shot around and she glowered at him, unable to believe his lack of tact. “Doctor!” she scolded him, but he ignored it.

“That girl you talked to is an alien species highly skilled in adapting to her environment, sort of like a chameleon, and I need you to describe her to me in as much detail as you can remember.”

Geoffrey Smith opened his mouth, but no words came out even as he attempted to speak. Clara thought it was relatable after the Doctor had just dropped that kind of bomb on him and it would probably be a while until he regained his speech, so she decided to soften the blow a little bit and stepped forward to talk to him.

“The Doctor and I were not sent by the Queen,” she explained carefully. “We are travellers from the future, as weird as this sounds, and we have seen quite a few strange things. I know it sounds crazy to you and I’m not expecting you to understand any of it, but we really are here to help and we’re probably the only ones who can.”

The blacksmith’s eyes widened considerably as he was taking in the words, but she wasn’t entirely sure he was actually understanding them.

“And on top of that, since we come from the future, we know that your colony will be wiped out in a matter of weeks or months - possibly by that alien thing,” the Doctor added.

Clara nudged him roughly. “You’re not helping!”

Slowly, Geoffrey rose to his feet and for a moment, Clara feared that he might flee and warn the rest of the colony about them, but he stood perfectly still where he was, his eyes fixed on both of them as he gathered his thoughts. “So you’re saying my Michael was abducted by aliens?” he asked.

“Basically,” the Doctor responded.

“And if he’s still alive, you’re going to get him back?”

“If he’s still alive, we will do what we can, yes, but I can’t make any promises.”

Geoffrey inhaled deeply and still, Clara wasn’t certain what he was going to do. After a moment had passed, however, he nodded. “Alright,” the blacksmith said. “I won’t pretend that I understand a thing of what you’re talking about, but I want my son back and I’m inclined to believe a lot of things if it gives me a chance to get him back.”

“Good,” the Doctor concluded and pointed towards the chairs, telling everyone to sit back down. Once they were seated again, he continued. “Now, tell me about the girl.”

Geoffrey recounted the day of his son’s disappearance as well as he could, telling him that a girl had run up to him, a girl so ordinary-looking that he had never before paid any attention to her at all. She had told him about Michael and what had happened in the woods and afterwards, he had forgotten about her. He couldn’t really describe her looks at all, only that she had seemed strange and familiar at the same time, part of the colony and yet not part of it. He doubted that any of the others had actually paid any attention to her and suddenly, something in Clara’s memory came alive.

“Wait,” she blurted out, not caring that she was interrupting the blacksmith’s tale. Suddenly, it seemed as clear as day. “I think I’ve met her.”


	16. Chapter 15

Up until then, that part of their adventure had seemed meaningless. Just a child in need during a dangerous situation, but as Clara told them about the little girl in the shelter no one had paid attention to, the Doctor’s eyes grew a little wider and the frown lines on his forehead deepened while he listened to her. Sally, that ordinary girl that had seemed to fit in perfectly and yet hadn’t because no one around had even looked at her or seen her loneliness. No one but Clara. In a community like this, someone should have taken care of her, but they hadn’t and now, for the first time, it made sense.

“She was just a frightened girl, but she was all on her own,” Clara explained frantically. “I don’t think anyone else actually noticed her.”

There was more to her story, but as Clara tried to invoke the memory of the girl, tried to picture what she had looked like, Sally’s face remained blank in her mind. There was nothing there except for blurry, distorted features not unlike the alien they had encountered in the spaceship. Sally had fooled her, too, but she hadn’t worked her alien magic on her entirely.

“Why did I see her at all?” she wanted to know, directing her question at the Doctor. “If they’re supposed to blend in perfectly, if their aim is not to be noticed, why did I?”

The Doctor frowned at her for a moment longer and Clara racked her brain for an answer to her own question, but it wouldn’t come.

“We’re not one of them,” he said eventually. “We don’t know what the colonists are supposed to look and act like and you’re a teacher.”

He made a waving gesture towards her.

“You’re good with children, your brain is tuned that way, to spot a child in trouble and you did. You even talked to her. Can you describe what she looked like?”

Once again, Clara tried to remember, but there was a blurry spot in her mind where Sally’s face should have been. She shook her head.

In response, the Doctor sighed audibly and rose from his chair to resume his pacing. It was his way of thinking hard and it might go on like that for another hour, but Clara didn’t have the patience for it. There was an alien girl out there all alone and they needed to find her. She rose to her feet.

“What are you doing?” the Doctor asked, a hint of surprise in his voice as he threw her a look of confusion.

“I’m going to find her,” Clara replied and placed her arms on her hips. “She’s scared and she’s on an alien planet all on her own and we need to help her.”

The confusion on his face didn’t lift, instead, it only seemed to grow. “A few hours ago you were scared of the aliens and our plan was to help the humans and not them.”

“Plan has changed,” she said determinedly. “That thing in the woods was scary, yes, but Sally isn’t and you made me realise that.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows just a little, asking her what she meant by that with his eyes.

“You were right,” Clara told him, “I am a teacher and I’m good with children. I know a troubled girl when I see one and there was nothing scary about Sally. In fact, I think everything around here was scaring her more than the alien in the woods scared us. I don’t know what happened or why they’re here, but Sally needs our help.”

Only when she heard Geoffrey clear his throat, Clara remembered that the blacksmith was still present and as she looked at him, she noticed that he, too, had risen from his chair. “You said something about the colony being wiped out in a matter of weeks,” he said, his voice careful as if he was treading on eggshells. “Does it have something to do with the aliens? What exactly is going to happen?”

The Doctor looked at Clara for a moment longer, almost piercing her with his gaze before his eyes slowly shifted towards Geoffrey. It was rare to see him at a loss, but this was one of those rare moments. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “The Lost Colony of Roanoke always remained a mystery, but when the supply ship arrives, they will find the colony abandoned… again. No one ever found out what really happened to the colonists.”

The blacksmith needed a moment to take in the words, but once they had settled in his mind, he nodded, then shook his head. “We would never give up,” he said. “This is our home now.”

“But you’re going to give it up,” the Doctor responded and his voice was surprisingly stern as he stepped forward. In direct comparison, the men were almost the same height, but there was always something impressive about the Doctor. “The site will be found abandoned, not dead. There will be no corpses for anyone to find and you will just… vanish.”

If the prospect frightened Geoffrey, he didn’t let it show. Instead, he straightened his shoulders and nodded towards Clara. “Whatever happens, I believe this girl will be able to answer some of our questions. I agree with you. We need to find her.”

“Then let’s not waste any more time,” the Doctor concluded.

They left the house together, Clara following after the Doctor and Geoffrey following after her and as they stepped out into the darkness, Clara began to ask herself how and where they would find an alien that could fit in anywhere like a chameleon. The Doctor seemed to have had the same thought as he came to a halt in front of the house and turned to face them.

“We should split up,” he announced. “Look for anything you don’t want to look at.”

Clara paused and she could see Geoffrey frown even in the dim moonlight. “Um, what?”

The impatience was visible on the Doctor’s face as he went on to explain. “The alien will try its best to blend in, using a perception filter that will make you want to look away, ignore what you’ve seen and move on and that’s where you’ll have to go. To find her, we must ignore our basic instincts. Look where you don’t want to look, go where you don’t want to go and if anyone seems too normal, that’s who we’re looking for.”

Despite the blacksmith’s continued look of confusion, Clara was beginning to understand what the Doctor was trying to tell them, so she nodded. “You go alone and I’ll take Geoffrey,” she determined, knowing that, on his own, the man was more likely to walk past Sally than notice her.

In response, Geoffrey threw her a grateful smile.

The Doctor agreed with a quick nod. “Good luck,” he wished them and then turned around and headed into the village.

Clara and Geoffrey were slower to move, walking in the opposite direction, and she could still feel the blacksmith’s reluctance in his every step. Not that she blamed him. She and the Doctor had only just overturned his entire world view.

“Are you actually ready to face an alien?” Geoffrey asked after a moment of silence and she heard a hint of fear in his voice.

Clara turned her head and tried her best to give him her most reassuring smile. “You’ve already met her once,” she argued. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“True,” Geoffrey agreed. “But then I assumed she was just an ordinary girl.”

“And you’ve met the Doctor,” Clara went on. “As far as aliens go, he’s a bit rude but otherwise alright.”

When she moved on, she had to suppress a chuckle because Geoffrey stopped dead in his tracks behind her, unable to move while the newest information was only just sinking in.

“Wait,” he said, “the Doctor is an alien, too?”

Clara smiled to herself, realising that it was one of those moments that she truly loved about travelling with the Time Lord.


	17. Chapter 16

An almost eerie sense of quiet had settled over the colony at this time of day and under normal circumstances, Clara would have called it peaceful. Yet in the back of her mind, she kept thinking back to the conversations with the Doctor, back to his warnings and his story about the abandoned site. The Lost Colony. Soon, something was going to happen, something dark and sinister. Clara didn’t know whether it was going to happen gradually, whether the colonists would be forced to witness their own demise, whether they would go down fighting but go down nonetheless - or whether they would all just vanish in the blink of an eye. There and gone a moment later. It all came down to what would happen to them and that was what they needed to figure out.

Geoffrey had fallen silent next to her right after Clara had explained to him who the Doctor was and what they were doing here, that they had travelled here in his time machine made out of wood. She could only imagine the turmoil inside his head as they walked through the quiet town.

At night, Roanoke seemed so peaceful that Clara almost forgot about the problems the colonists faced, it almost made her think that this colony could have been a wonderful fresh start for everyone around. The night was quiet apart from the guards’ footsteps near the broken fence and the occasional sound of the wilderness. Most of the lights had already gone out with only every other window illuminated by a candle on the inside where people were still awake. But Clara had seen with her own eyes how fragile this peace really was. She had seen the weather change, she had seen threat starvation posed to every single colonist and, above all, she had seen the alien creature that had someone ended up dangerously close to the place they had chosen for their first step into the New World.

Instead of thinking about what fate might be waiting for the colonists, Clara decided to focus on the task at hand and that was finding the alien that had somehow found its way into the heart of Roanoke, undetected and unnoticed and very possibly posing a threat. She remembered the Doctor’s words and tried to look where her mind didn’t want to look, but she found little more than darkness in the quiet town. There was nothing but one dark corner after the other.

With a frustrated groan, Clara came to a halt. “I don’t think this is going to work,” she proclaimed and let her shoulders sink a little.

Geoffrey stopped, too, and looked at her under the moonlight. He seemed to be even more at a loss than she was. “I don’t know how else to look for her. I mean, I don’t even understand what’s going on if you want me to be honest.”

He uttered a short, nervous laugh and Clara found her spirits lift a little. It wasn’t hopeless, they just had to come up with a better plan. Then, she had an idea.

“I think the Doctor was wrong to assume this alien would think exactly like the one we encountered in the woods,” she said, vocalising her thoughts to see if they might make sense once she had said them out loud. “The one in the woods was tall, an adult, but the impression I got from Sally was that of a child.”

Geoffrey lifted his eyebrow at her just a little. “The Doctor said they could take any shape like a chameleon can take on any colour.”

“Yes, but in Sally’s case, it would have made more sense to take the shape of an adult. A grown man or woman would stand out even less in a colony with only a few children. No,” she said determinedly, “I think this alien is the equivalent of a human child, young and terrified and in need of protection.”

Still, the blacksmith didn’t seem to follow. “So?” he asked.

“So, it might do what a human child would do. Find shelter, seek a place of safety and protection, a spot where it previously felt safe,” Clara explained as her eyes wandered towards the barn. It was the exact opposite of what the Doctor had told her, but something about the storage barn just drew her in, invited her to step closer and come inside. That was where they would find the alien.

Geoffrey followed her only reluctantly as Clara made her way towards the barn, her steps quiet and careful so as not to scare the alien off before they had a chance to talk. She braced herself, reminding herself that she was good at this, that she had done this so many times she had actually lost count. Comforting children, reassuring them, human and alien alike - Clara had done it before and she could do it again. Carefully, she knocked on the door.

“Sally?” Clara asked, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “It’s Clara. Remember me? We talked in there for a while, during the storm.”

She fell silent and listened for a reply, but it never came. There was so sound to be heard inside the barn at all.

“I’m here to help you,” she went on eventually. “My friend and I, we’re good with complicated situations and I can promise you, you’ll be completely safe with us.”

Again, nothing.

“Maybe she isn’t hiding in there after all,” Geoffrey suggested carefully.

Clara shook her head. “No, I’m right about this, I know it,” she insisted.

Just as she was considering her next move, the unexpected happened and the door opened from the inside. At first, Clara didn’t see any reason why it should before Sally came into view like a strange, alien fade-in effect. Only now that she knew what to look for, Clara realised how difficult it was to actually look at the girl’s face. It was as if her brain was trying to prevent her from seeing what wasn’t there, but she willed herself to do it anyway. In her chameleon form, the girl was as ordinary as Clara or Geoffrey.

Clara focused her gaze on the girl’s face and smiled. “Hey, Sally,” she said, her voice kind, “I know you’ve probably been through quite a lot, but my friend and I really need your help. How about we find something to eat and go back to our house for a little chat, hm?”

Sally opened her mouth reluctantly, but it wasn’t the girl’s voice that Clara heard next. It was a deeper, male voice, but there was a distortion in it that felt like she was hearing it through an old, broken radio not quite tuned to the right frequency.

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” the voice said and Clara shot around.

Geoffrey had gone and whatever was next to her still held his vague shape, but where a few minutes ago his familiar face had been was now the distorted blur of the alien. Instinctively, Clara stepped back, but it was no use. A moment later, her entire world went black as the alien converged to her.


	18. Chapter 17

His hand moved towards his aching head, rubbing the spot at the back from where the pain spread towards his temples. At first, he had taken it for a sign of too much ale, but he couldn’t remember drinking any. He couldn’t remember being struck, either, in fact, not even his own name came to his mind straight away.

“Geoffrey!” a voice called from a distance and it rang a faint bell in his hurting head. That voice was familiar to him, that name was familiar to him.

It took him a moment to realise that he was Geoffrey and with the realisation of who he was, the rest began to return as well even though a part of him wished that it could have remained forgotten. The headache was nothing compared to the aching in his heart when he thought about Michael. His memory was accompany by a sudden urge to lay back down and drift off into oblivion.

“Geoffrey!” the voice called again and when he looked up, the Doctor came running towards him, flapping his arms around in a manner Geoffrey had seen on children, but never on a grown man. Of course, the Doctor was an alien. Everything from his clothes to his manner of speech was so foreign that Geoffrey found it hard to believe he hadn’t seen through it himself.

“What happened? Where’s Clara?” the old man asked him when he came to a halt next to Geoffrey.

Before he realised what was happening, the Doctor had his hands on Geoffrey’s arms and pulled him up. Time Lord, that’s what Clara had said he was. An alien who travelled through time and space in something she had called a police box, whatever that was.

Clara. That had been the Doctor’s question.

“I don’t know,” he admitted eventually, finally looking the Doctor in the eyes. As he did, Geoffrey had the impression that maybe, he was even older than his grey hair made him appear, but he didn’t understand how it was possible at all. “Something hit me, I think. We were on our way to the barn to find the alien girl.”

“Come along, then,” the Doctor replied impatiently and between one breath and the next, his hands were gone and Geoffrey was left to stand on his own.

His feet still felt a little wobbly, but he followed the Doctor regardless and from a distance, he marvelled at the strange torch the alien had pulled out of his jacket pocket. It emitted a green glow and a weird whirring sound while the Doctor lit the path in front of them. Sometimes, it felt like a dream and Geoffrey wished that it was. He wished to wake up and discover that Michael was still with him, sleeping peacefully in his bed across the room, wished that the sorrow hadn’t taken his wife from him. He wished so hard to wake up, but whenever he did, he found that the dream was actually that of his family and everything else was all too real.

“You know what’s interesting?” the Doctor suddenly asked, tearing Geoffrey out of his thoughts and bringing him back to reality.

He looked ahead, but couldn’t spot anything interesting in the darkness at all.

“You were knocked out where I found you, but there’s still two sets of footprints leading towards the barn,” the alien explained and came to a halt, illuminating the ground so Geoffrey could get a better look.

As he bent down, he instantly saw that the Doctor was right. Two sets of footprints: a smaller one that left a strange, patterned print in the moist earth and a larger one that might have been his own - only that he hadn’t walked here.

Looking for an answer to this new, strange mystery, Geoffrey raised his head and stared at the Doctor. Maybe it was the eerie, green light of the torch, but his gaze seemed darker all of a sudden.

“Whose footprints are these?” Geoffrey wanted to know.

The Doctor inhaled deeply and hesitated for a moment as if gathering his thoughts. For a brief second, Geoffrey thought that a hint of fear had crossed over his face, but it was gone before he could be sure he had seen it. Surely, the Time Lord wasn’t scared? Geoffrey felt a tingle down his spine as he considered the possible danger. If something scared a being so powerful as the Doctor, they were truly lost.

“I think the grown-up alien found us and I think it knocked you out and shapeshifted into you,” the alien explained carefully, his voice too calm and quiet for what he was saying.

Quicker than Geoffrey could comprehend, the Doctor spun around and darted off into the darkness, heading in the direction of the barn and he had no other choice but to follow. As he wandered through the darkness, a strange feeling started to grow inside of him and he didn’t like it. Geoffrey had pushed it aside until now, ignored it, pretended it wasn’t there, but what he was really feeling as they approached the barn was fear. Geoffrey was afraid of what they were going to find, afraid that something had happened to Clara, afraid that his son was beyond saving even for the alien Doctor.

He stopped abruptly, almost bumping into the Doctor who had already reached the barn. It was hard to make out in the darkness, but luckily for Geoffrey, the Doctor quickly went on to explain.

“They’re gone,” he announced and when Geoffrey had suspected to hear defeat in his voice, he was wrong. The Doctor sounded angry, furious even. The determination in his voice might have been enough to make the structure of the barn collapse.

The Doctor spun around on his heels and stared straight at Geoffrey who stepped back instinctively under his frighteningly dark gaze. If he had been an enemy instead of the Doctor’s friend, this was where he would have started to run for his life.

“What are we going to do?” Geoffrey found himself asking, his voice shaky and weak compared to the Doctor’s.

“We will find them,” the alien replied, half growling his words. “Clara, Sally, your son. We will find them and we will get them back.”

As much as Geoffrey loved to hear him sound so convinced, a part of him was still scared, maybe even more than he had been five minutes ago. “How are we going to do that?” he wanted to know.

The Doctor took a step closer, but his eyes remained on Geoffrey as if he wanted to determined whether the blacksmith was up for the task. “Clara and I found their spaceship. We will go there and demand our family back.”

Geoffrey opened his mouth, ready to protest, ready to ask a million more questions. How were they going to talk to aliens? How would they convince them? Wasn’t it dangerous? Were they actually going to seek out the aliens and venture into their territory? Was he about to see an alien spaceship?

He had no time to ask any of these questions as the Doctor stomped past him and headed towards the hole in the colony’s fence, angry and determined to get back the person he had lost. Geoffrey should have felt the same anger, but as he feet started to move, all he could feel was fear.


	19. Chapter 18

It was a strange sensation. Clara somehow felt as if she was floating. On more than one occasion, she had put on a spacesuit and gone out into the void, her arms and legs dangling in the vacuum with nothing to pull her in. At first, she had hated it. Eventually, she had come to love it. Being in space offered a certain kind of freedom you could only feel when your life was literally hanging by a thread, but Clara had always known that the Doctor would grab the cord and pull her back when she depended on him.

This was different. This kind of floating felt similar, but wrong in a way she couldn’t quite place and there was an itch at the back of her neck that told her no one was holding the tether. She opened her eyes.

The panic was instant. As soon as she realised that she was surrounded by some kind of fluid, Clara held her breath until she remembered that somehow, she had been breathing the entire time. Still, she couldn’t quite bring herself to open her mouth and risk it. Instead, she looked around and examined her cage. It was small, too small to even spread her arms and the panic inside her chest only grew. She was going to die. She was going to drown in a tub.

With all the strength she could muster underwater, Clara threw herself against the fogged glass front, but nothing happened apart from the shooting pain in her shoulder and her air was running out. Clara felt it in the way her heartbeat accelerated, in the way her lungs twitched inside her chest, in the way that she thought her body might burst if she didn’t give in to the temptation. So she did.

Fresh air filled her lungs, stinging a little as it spread through her body but at the same time, filling her cells with life. It was a weird transformation and for a second, Clara felt like she was on fire, like she was smarter, quicker, stronger, and she looked around herself and spotted it. In the murky fluid, it was almost impossible to see, but her hands found the button quickly and pressed it right before her body was catapulted out of the coffin-like prison.

Clara gasped for air and the rush she had previously felt abated a little, leaving her to believe that whatever she had breathed in there was higher in oxygen than their natural atmosphere, but still, she was glad to be outside of her prison. While her body was still dripping wet from the strange fluid, Clara gathered her thoughts and focused on the more important matters. Where was she? Why was she here? And how could she get back to the Doctor?

Raising her head, Clara found the answer to her first question straight away. The design was unmistakable. Clean lines and shapes determined everything in front of her eyes and without having to take a second look, she knew that she was back on the alien spaceship in the woods, but this time, not in the cockpit. As she rose to her feet and walked along the narrow corridor, Clara spotted more of the containers like the one she been held in and from the outside, they didn’t look so dangerous and threatening anymore. In fact, the longer she thought about it, the less it seemed like a prison. After all, what prison came with a door handle on the inside? And what ship needed a large array of prison cells? The containers covered everything and Clara wasn’t sure she would be able to count them all. Most of them were dark but some, like hers had been, were illuminated in a soft blue glow and that was where she was headed.

When Clara came to a halt in front of the nearest occupied container, a frown appeared on her face even though she realised that she shouldn’t have been surprised. The boy inside it was smaller than she was and had a lot more space to float around in, but he didn’t seem uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. Clara thought he looked like a child who was happy asleep. For a brief moment, she considered engaging the button next to the container, but she quickly thought better of it. Yes, it was likely to release him, but first, she needed to figure out why he was in there at all.

“He will be alright.”

A voice at the back of her head startled her and Clara spun around in an instant, only to see nothing. It was a trick, a trap, and she focused her eyes until the being took shape. Only this time, it was different. This time, the alien wasn’t blurry or distorted. The woman who appeared in front of her was… her.

“I’m sorry if I’ve scared you,” the alien said out of Clara’s mouth. “That wasn’t my intention, but I believe you will be more comfortable talking to me in this form.”

Clara’s eyes widened in disbelief. Just like a Zygon would, this alien had made a perfect replica of her that made it feel like she was looking into a mirror that wasn’t quite obeying her. The hair, the eyes, the nose, the lips, even her clothes were the exact same. Not knowing what else to do, not caring that it might be dangerous, Clara reached out and touched the alien’s sleeve, felt the cotton fabric between her fingers. A terrible thought crossed her mind, the thought that maybe, these aliens had come here to replace them, but Clara quickly brushed it aside. It didn’t make sense. If it were so, they would have replaced the children immediately upon taking them.

“What are you?” Clara found herself asking, realising how much in awe she sounded. “Why are you keeping these people in… tanks?”

Tanks. That was the word for it. That was what these prisons really were.

“They are sleeping, preparing for the journey,” the alien explained. “Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe. The fluid protects them from any harm external forces might do to them. Not even age can touch them in there.”

“So, it’s like a stasis chamber?”

The alien nodded with her head.

“We are the Q’Uartar and we were on our way to a new galaxy when our ship malfunctioned in transit. We had to make an emergency landing here.”

It was just like the Doctor had assumed. It wasn’t an invasion. It was an accident. However, it didn’t explain the kidnappings.

“What about the children? Why have you taken them from the locals?” Clara asked, keeping her voice low so as not to make it sound like an accusation.

Her own face smiled back at her. “The Q’Uartar nearly went extinct when our old world collapsed, but we were able to dispatch a few colony ships. The one you call Sally and I were the last of our kind to leave and we have so much space to offer on this ship. Where we’re going, these children will have a good life.”

Now, Clara was in the mood for an accusation as she raised her eyebrows at the alien. “You kidnapped them. Even if it was done out of the goodness of your heart, their parents miss them and they might not want to come with you,” she shot back at the Q’Uartar, at her own face. And then she remembered something else: being in the tank. “Wait, you tried to take _me_. I’m not even from here, I’m just a visitor, like you.”

The alien smiled amicably. “That is why I never sealed your tank. You don’t belong in this time, but you were following me and I wanted you to understand we mean these people no harm.”

“Tearing children from their families _is_ harm,” Clara retorted, finally raising her voice. “I get it, really, I do. You tried to do something good, but that doesn’t automatically make it right. Please, just release the children and let them go back to their parents.”

In a defiant gesture, the alien Clara crossed her arms in front of her chest and remained silent for a while, caught in a stubborn staring contest with the human one. Then, slowly, she parted her lips to speak again.

“There are enough tanks,” she said eventually.

Clara didn’t understand and there was no time to ask because the door suddenly exploded, the force knocking her back against a tank and her vision was reduced to smoke.


	20. Chapter 19

When the smoke cleared, Clara still found herself coughing the remnants out of her lungs while her eyes searched the room for the Q’Uartar. The alien copy of her wasn’t hurt, but she, too, had been knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion and both of them struggled back to their feet at the same time, coughing and looking around for the source of the disaster. Her eyes fell on the door and she noticed the two shapes slowly coming into view before Clara recognised at least one of them and even though her heart skipped a beat upon seeing him, her happiness only lasted until she spotted the second person. Geoffrey had come to her aid as well and he was pointing a pistol at them.

“Don’t shoot!” Clara blurted out immediately and stepped forward, raising her hands in a placating gesture. “They’re friendly!”

Between the shock of having a pistol pointed at her and stepping in to stop them, Clara had forgotten the obvious and it was now slowly dawning on her as she looked into the Doctor’s confused features. His gaze wandered from her to the alien and back and he clearly didn’t know what to make of it.

“It’s me,” Clara said gently. “I’m the real Clara. The Q’Uartar are shapeshifters and frankly, they’re really good at it. They’re not evil. They just crash-landed here, like you said, and I think they need our help.”

“Where is my son?!” Geoffrey demanded to know as soon as Clara had finished her sentence. He took a step in her direction, but he didn’t lower his weapon.

The Doctor still eyed her cautiously, obviously unsure whether he should really believe her or not, but after a moment’s hesitation, he reached out and lowered Geoffrey’s weapon for him. “Hold it with the shooting for now, will you?” he said and then turned his attention towards her, frowning. “If you’re the real Clara, tell me what we had for lunch in Glasgow on Christmas Day.”

Clara’s eyebrows shot up. “ _I_ had chips, you went to get coffee and came back three weeks later,” she said, growling a little because, if she was entirely honest, she was still a little mad at him for that incident. Explaining to her family how she had disappeared from London and showed up in Glasgow in a matter of hours hadn’t been a walk in the park.

The Doctor’s face, however, lit up once he heard her answer and he raised his hand to point a finger at her. “That’s her, that’s the real Clara,” he concluded, but the joy vanished from his eyes in an instant as they trailed towards the Q’Uartar, the other Clara. Frowning, he observed her for a moment. “I’m sure you have quite the interesting story to tell.”

“She was in the process of telling me when you blew up part of her ship,” Clara remarked angrily.

“Well, I’m sorry,” the Doctor replied as he rolled his eyes. “We thought you might be in danger. Please, start from the beginning, uh-”

“The Q’Uartar, that’s what they call us,” the alien explained. “And I told your companion that we didn’t come here by choice. While we fled from our dying planet in search of a new paradise, our ship malfunctioned and we crashed here. But this is a colony ship with room for so many more than were left of us. We thought it would be a waste not to offer the space to fellow colonists. Which is what you are.”

The false Clara nodded in Geoffrey’s direction and smiled a kind smile, but the grieving father still didn’t seem to understand what was happening as the alien told him his son was alive and well and that he could probably have him back if he only asked.

“What about Sally?” the Doctor demanded to know. “Why did she hide from you? Why did she run away?”

“The one you call Sally is a youngling and very adventurous. She ran off like children do, out of curiosity, and she got lost, unable to find her way back, but she’s now in her stasis pod. Would you like me to wake her so you can question her as well?”

“I would like you to tell me where my son is,” Geoffrey growled. His hand was still clutching the pistol as if he had every intention of using it and Clara was beginning to worry. If the alien didn’t release his son, there was no telling what he would do.

“Show him his son,” Clara told her. “Let him see that he’s okay.”

The alien with Clara’s face regarded her for a while and then nodded, adding a waving gesture with her hands that told them to follow her.

They walked down the long spaceship corridor, past the small chamber that Clara had successfully broken out of, past many more empty stasis pods and as they did, Clara glanced towards the Doctor. A strange expression had appeared on his face, one that told her he was in deep thought and considering the possibilities. He was having an idea, she was sure of that, but Clara didn’t quite know what that idea was. Sooner or later, he was bound to share it with them.

As they moved on, Clara noticed that a few of the pods were occupied and she recognised the children as belonging to the Croatoans. They would be glad to hear that their sons and daughters were alright.

Eventually, the Q’Uartar came to a halt and pointed towards another stasis pod in which a boy looked like he was sleeping peacefully. Having been inside one of them for a brief period of time, Clara knew that it was anything but an unpleasant feeling. The boy was going to be alright.

“Michael!”

At last, Geoffrey dropped his weapon and darted forward, pressing his hands against the glass that separated him from his son, but no matter what he did on the outside, the sleeping boy didn’t react.

“What have you done to him?! Why isn’t he waking up?!”

Still, the Q’Uartar smiled like a benevolent mother. “He is in deep sleep, ready to go to a new world where he will have a better life. It is the most comfortable and safest way for anyone but the pilot to travel. Inside this chamber, he won’t go hungry or get sick or even age. At the end of the journey, the boy will step outside and feel like no time at all has passed.”

Even though it seemed hard for Geoffrey to tear his gaze away from his son, he spun around and looked at the alien in front of him. “Can you release him?”

The Q’Uartar seemed confused. “Why would I do that? I just told you it is the safest way for him to travel.”

“He isn’t travelling anywhere!” Geoffrey hissed. “I want my boy back!”

Clara glanced towards the Doctor, hoping that he would step in and stop this fight from escalating, but the Time Lord simply watched as if he was expecting something. The longer she looked, the more Clara thought she could see the amusement in his eyes and she didn’t understand it. Not yet.

“The stasis pod next to your son is still empty,” the alien replied softly. “You’re welcome to it.”

Now it was up to Geoffrey to look confused. He didn’t get it, but Clara did. Finally, she was beginning to understand what was going on, what the Doctor had been thinking this whole time. At last, everything was starting to make sense to her and a smile spread across her face.

“This new world you’re going to, is it nice there?” the Doctor asked.

“It is a paradise,” the Q’Uartar replied immediately. “Most of our people have already settled there. Before they did, the place was untouched. Clean air, clean water, more than enough resources to accommodate a much larger population than we would bring with us for countless generations.”

“And you don’t mind sharing it with the humans?” he went on. “I mean, you’re bringing some of them along. You should know they don’t always treat their home planets all too well. You would need to teach them sustainability.”

“The Q’Uartar believe that there is great value in sharing,” the alien replied. “Leaving these pods empty means depriving these humans of their chance for a better life.”

“And how many more empty pods do you have?” Clara wanted to know, happy to have finally gotten the drift. “Would it be enough for the whole colony?”

The Q’Uartar nodded. “Yes, I believe so.”

Geoffrey flinched when the Doctor clapped his hands together in excitement. “Then the mystery is solved,” he said.

Clara grinned at him in response. “The Lost Colony was never lost,” she said. “They just resettled.”

“I’m sorry, but can someone explain to me what is going on?” Geoffrey asked, the confusion all too visible on his face.

The Doctor smiled when he stepped closer and placed his hand on the blacksmith’s shoulder. “Your people will go with the Q’Uartar, all of you. Think about it!” he said and gestured around. “The spot you’ve chosen is barren, you’ve lost so much of your food supplies during the last storm and history tells me that by the time the next ship arrives, your colony will be abandoned. This is it! This is your chance!”

“To what? To go to an alien planet?!” Geoffrey asked in disbelief.

“Exactly!”

Clara stepped in when she noticed that the Doctor was having a hard time selling the concept to Geoffrey who, up until a few days ago, hadn’t even known that aliens existed. “You will have a better life there,” she told him. “You, your son, your friends. The Q’Uartar are kind and they’re more advanced than humanity will… well, ever be. And they’re offering you to share their new paradise with them. But I’m afraid the rest of the colony will need convincing as well.”

“And we should probably wake up the Croatoans and ask their parents whether they’re on board with this,” the Doctor argued and turned his attention towards the false Clara. “As noble as your intentions are, you should ask people before you kidnap them in your spaceship.”

Clara chuckled at that.

“What?” the Doctor asked.

“Because you’ve always asked permission before kidnapping someone,” she remarked.

“Anyway,” he went on, completely ignoring her snide remark, “do we all agree?”

Clara nodded, as did the Q’Uartar wearing Clara’s face. Geoffrey seemed uncertain, but his gaze trailed towards his sleeping son in the pod and then, he nodded, too. It was the best decision for everyone and Clara was glad that it was solved without anyone dying.

“Alright,” the Doctor concluded, grinning broadly. “I will stay here and help fix the ship. You two should go back to the colony and let everyone know that they’re resettling. Oh, this is exciting, isn’t it?”


	21. Chapter 20

Geoffrey remained quiet on the way home back to the colony, his thoughts coming thick and fast as he recounted everything that had happened during the last couple of days. First, his boy had vanished and been presumed dead. The grief and the worry had also taken his wife from him only a few days later and even then, Geoffrey hadn’t allowed himself to grieve. He was afraid that if he started, he wouldn’t be able to stop and go down to follow his wife on the same path. But then the strangers had arrived with promises of finding out what had really happened to his son, with promises to bring Michael back if it was possible and Geoffrey hadn’t dared to hope. Even now, after having seen aliens and spaceships, after having heard promises of a new world, he couldn’t gather up the courage to hope because he was more scared of having his hopes crushed than anything else.

Still, he couldn’t help but think about it, hard as it was to wrap his mind around the concept of aliens and space travel. If what the alien had said was true, would they live happily ever after on a different planet? Or would they be tricked into something darker and more sinister? After all, why would the alien kidnap the children and not just invite them?

“You’re very quiet,” Clara remarked eventually and when Geoffrey looked up, he noticed her smile despite the soft moonlight. It would be morning by the time they returned to the settlement.

Geoffrey sighed. “I’m tired.”

“And probably a little overwhelmed,” the woman said, chuckling softly. She was kind, of that Geoffrey didn’t have a single doubt. He had noticed her kindness and soft nature almost straight away because of the warmth she radiated. Suddenly, he found himself wondering whether she was aware she was doing this.

“Yes,” he admitted. “It’s a little… much.”

“I get it,” Clara replied. “When I first met the Doctor, he saved me from aliens and then immediately ushered me into his spaceship to save the world. I didn’t know anything about any of that at that time. Aliens. Time travel. Space. It all seemed insane and dangerous and utterly wild.”

Geoffrey raised his eyebrows. “But you stayed with him? Despite the danger?”

Clara nodded in response. “It’s also pretty great,” she admitted with another laugh. “Where I come from, I’m a teacher. I have an ordinary life, a family, friends. But once a week, the Doctor comes to pick me up and we go… anywhere. Yes, it’s often dangerous, but he also shows me the most amazing things and, I don’t know, it just seems worth the risk every single time.”

There was something in Clara’s voice that made Geoffrey believe her. He still didn’t know whether any of it was true or not, but he could tell that Clara believed it and that she loved it. The awe and marvel with which she spoke about the Doctor and space travel was unmistakable. But what about the strange alien race that had taken his boy?

“Will it be worth the risk to go with the… the Q’Uartar?” Geoffrey wanted to know, his voice quiet and hesitant.

When Clara’s head shot around, she looked a little surprised at first.

“How do you know they can be trusted?” he added.

Clara merely shrugged. “We never really know whether we can trust someone, that’s why, occasionally, we have to take a leap of faith. But the Q’Uartar seemed kind, in a strange way. They could have hurt us, they could have hurt _me_ but they didn’t. I’ve been inside one of those stasis chambers and the Q’Uartar let me go. I think it was their way of showing us that they mean us no harm.”

“Then why didn’t they just ask us to come along instead of abducting the children?”

Geoffrey heard her sigh, a sound somewhere between humour and resignation and he didn’t understand it. He could only imagine that it had something to do with a lifetime full of experience in dealing with aliens. “One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t expect aliens to think and act like humans. I mean, even the Doctor doesn’t get it and he’s spent most of his 2000 years on this planet. But the Doctor trusts the Q’Uartar, so I will do the same.”

Geoffrey nodded to himself, knowing that he didn’t really have another choice.

“Alright,” Clara said as they reached the damaged gates of the colony and came to a halt, “how about you talk to the men and I talk to the women? One way or another, we have to get them to pack their bags.”

His shoulders sank a little when he thought about how he was going to convince the rest of the colonists, but he still nodded. One way or another.

* * *

Governor Johnson had the loudest laugh of them all, a bellowing sound bouncing back off the walls before penetrating his ear. It was a sound not of amusement but of pure ridicule, a reaction to Geoffrey’s story and plea to come with him and fly away to a different planet.

“It’s true,” he argued meekly. “I’ve seen their ship with my own eyes and they have our children.”

Johnson’s laugh continued for a moment longer until he collapsed, exhausted, into his chair. A tear was streaming from his eye. He didn’t believe him. “And what? The green creatures have offered us passage on their ship out of the kindness of their heart?” he asked, the amusement now audible in his voice. The rest of the group joined in his laughter.

“First of all, they’re not green,” Geoffrey argued, a trace of anger flaring up in him. He had known that it wouldn’t be easy to convince the colonists to come along, but now, he realised that he should have seen the disbelief coming. Had someone told him the same thing a few days ago, Geoffrey wouldn’t have believed it for a second. They needed to see it with their own eyes. “And you know that this land is cursed. The people who came before us all starved and died and the same thing is going to happen to us if we don’t resettle.”

“The savages have lived on this land forever,” the governor argued and finally rose back to his feet, towering over Geoffrey without even making an effort. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t. We’re more advanced than they are. The only advantage they have is that they’ve had time to get to know their land. And you know what I’m thinking right now?”

Geoffrey stood as tall as he could, defying Johnson with his gaze, but he didn’t know what to say.

“I think this is a great ruse to drive us from what they think is their land,” the governor said.

“That’s not what’s happening,” Geoffrey argued instantly. “Some of the Croatoans’ children were on board of the ship as well.”

“That just makes it an even cleverer ruse,” the tall man countered and took a step closer, his head so high over Geoffrey’s own that it seemed almost menacing. “I won’t fall for it.”

The blacksmith took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts, trying to rack his brain for an argument that might win them over, no matter how slim his chances were. All he wanted was to have his son back and if it took a journey across the universe to be with him and to know that he was safe, then he would undertake that journey despite his fears. But how was he going to motivate the others? How?

“The Q’Uartar have made us a generous offer,” Geoffrey tried to explain to them. “We would have a fresh start on a new planet that is untouched by humans. We would be the first to go there. All the land we can dream of is just waiting for us out there. And we would have help because the Q’Uartar are more advanced than we are, they will know better methods for building shelter and farming and, well, everything. We could achieve so much more than we can achieve here.”

Governor Johnson stared at him for a long moment and Geoffrey dearly hoped that he was at least considering his proposal, but when he spoke, he realised that he had hoped in vain. “What makes you think they can be trusted? What makes you think that any of this is even true?” Johnson wanted to know, his voice harsh and cold. “You have to admit how insane it all sounds. I know how badly you want your boy back, but I’m not going to let you endanger us all for your false hope.”

His words stung and not because the governor was deliberately trying to hurt him or discredit him. No, they hit hard because deep inside his heart, there was the seed of doubt that Geoffrey hadn’t been able to kill ever since he had left the spaceship. What if it was all a lie? The aliens were real, he knew that much, but even Clara hadn’t been able to convince him that their offer was actually sincere. She believed it and he wanted to, but a part of him just thought that it was all too incredible to really be true.

“You want your son back,” Governor Johnson said and this time, his voice sounded almost kind until he continued, “so take him back.”

Without saying another word, the governor pushed a pistol into his hand and smiled. “Whether your aliens are real or a trick played by the savages, we can beat them. You said that there are only two and we have an army of strong men. We can get your son back.”

Geoffrey swallowed hard and let the words flow through his mind for a few seconds, turning them over in his head until they took shape. They probably could take his son back if they all worked together, but he didn’t want it to be this way. He didn’t want violence. It felt like he was betraying Clara and the Doctor and even that strange creature that called itself Q’Uartar. It didn’t feel right.

When Johnson’s broad hand landed on his shoulder, Geoffrey finally woke up from his daydream and he knew what he wanted to tell him, but the words just didn’t come out. Above everything else, he wanted his son back, no matter the cost. “Will you lead us to the alien’s lair?”

Geoffrey’s body moved on his own accord, nodding slowly without him wanting to and when the roaring and cheering broke out among the men, he knew that it was too late to stop or talk sense into them. In a way, the Q’Uartar had had it coming. They had abducted their children and now, they were going to pay the price while Geoffrey was powerless to stop it.


	22. Chapter 21

The women listened intently as Clara moved on with her story even though she felt like they only understood half of it. She couldn’t really blame them. If someone had come to her and told her about aliens and spaceships and time travel a few years ago, Clara would have called them crazy. But as it was, she knew that all of it was very, very real and somehow, she needed to make these women understand and convince them to give up their home and everything they had known and worked for for something new and foreign. Right from the beginning, Clara had known that it wouldn’t be easy, but the marvel she saw reflected into the colonists’ eyes seemed like a good start. At least they weren’t calling her crazy or locking her up in a cell.

“I know it’s difficult for you to understand, but I’m telling you that you would have a much better life where they’re taking you. The Q’Uartar are very advanced and they will share their knowledge with you. Knowledge of medicine and travel and farming, anything you can think of. Instead of trying to survive on this barren patch of land, you could have a fresh start on a whole new planet,” Clara told him and exhaled sharply once she was finished. She had said everything she had wanted to say, but the silence she was met with told her that they hadn’t understood at all, that they were still taking everything in.

Finally, after an eternity had passed, Clara heard a small, reluctant voice coming from the back of the room as one of the women stood up. “Are you saying that there are things living elsewhere besides the earth? And that we should _go_ with them?”

The incredulousness was audible in her voice and Clara was running out of ideas how else she could make them understand that their best option was going with the Q’Uartar. At last, she inhaled deeply and braced herself for a long, long monologue.

“I’m not from here,” she admitted eventually, “and I’m not from England either. Well, I am, but it’s not like you think. The Doctor is a time travelling alien from the planet Gallifrey and together, we travelled from London in 2015 to this place in his spaceship. In my time, this continent we’re on in called America and people from all over the world have come to settle here eventually. My history knowledge is a bit spotty, but I know one thing: This colony right here, Roanoke, it’s not successful.”

Finally, Clara seemed to reach them. The women still sat there in silence, eyes wide and listening to her intently, taking in every word while she told them the story she had only recently heard from the Doctor, while she told them of the draughts and the storms and how, eventually, they would find this colony abandoned. Then, she once more told them of the Q’Uartar, of their kindness and their advanced technologies, of how the best way for them all to survive was to pack the essentials and go with them to colonise not a new continent but a whole new planet.”

When she had finished, Clara rose to her feet, smiling kindly at the women. “You know what,” she concluded, “I think you should see it for yourself. What do you say?”

Reluctantly, the women exchanged hesitant glances among each other and Clara was already afraid that telling the whole story would still not be enough to convince them when at last, a woman at the back stood up. She was young and even shorter than Clara was and when she spoke, her voice was quiet as if she herself couldn’t believe what she was saying. “I’d like to see it,” she said. “I want to see the spaceship.”

The other women turned their heads towards the speaker and a soft murmur broke out among them until another rose to her feet.

“I’d like to see it, too,” she said.

“And me,” a third one confirmed.

Slowly but surely, everyone stood up, agreeing, wanting to come along and at least see the Q’Uartar for themselves before making up their mind, but Clara found herself smiling, her hopes finally rekindled. She wasn’t sure how Geoffrey was doing in convincing the men, but the first step was made. Everything was going to be alright.

“Show us the aliens,” an elderly woman demanded. Her voice sounded harsh, but there was a hint of a smile on her lips and her eyes glistened with childlike curiosity as if she couldn’t believe she had gone a lifetime without knowing about aliens and spaceships and now couldn’t wait to finally see it for herself.

Clara opened her mouth, ready to tell them to come along and lead the way when the door of the house burst open. Everyone’s head shot around as the men barged in and at the sight of pistols, Clara took a step back, unsure of what was happening.

“What’s going on?” Clara demanded to know and scanned the group of men for a familiar face, hoping to spot Geoffrey, but she never did. Instead, it was Governor Johnson who stepped forward, parting the crowd to make way for himself and his heavy steps. The look he wore on his face didn’t bode well for her.

“Seize her!” the governor proclaimed instantly and even if he hadn’t raised his hand and pointed straight at her, Clara knew from the second they had walked in that he meant her.

Looking around, she saw no chance for escape, she saw no one with the capacity to help her, so when two men stepped up and grabbed hold of her arms, Clara didn’t resist. It was pointless. Only the Doctor would be able to help her now and he was still with the Q’Uartar, helping to fix their ship before the departure.

“May I ask what I’m supposed to have done?” Clara asked, hoping that the defiance showed in her voice. She didn’t really need to ask, but she did it anyway, just to confirm her hunch.

“You were caught conspiring with our enemies to abduct and exploit our people and for that, you and your companion will be punished. Where is he?”

Clara inhaled deeply and willed herself to stay calm even in the presence of their weapons. “He’s fixing the spaceship,” she replied. The Governor flinched at the mention of the alien ship, but said nothing. “And the Q’Uartar are not your enemies. They want to help you start a new life.”

Finally, as Clara let her gaze wander through the crowd, she spotted Geoffrey. He avoided her gaze at first, but when their eyes finally locked, Clara stared at him, her eyebrows knitted angrily. He should have been helping her, not get her arrested. Yet Geoffrey merely shrugged and offered her an apologetic glance. He would never speak up.

“I just want my son back,” he said simply. “I’m going to do what needs to be done.”

Clara felt a surge of anger and for a moment, she wanted to yell at him and tell Geoffrey that cooperating with the Q’Uartar was the best option he had, but she never got the chance when her captors pushed her forward.

“Let’s see if they will release our people when we threaten to kill one of their own,” Governor John said proudly and Clara realised with dismay that they meant her.


	23. Chapter 22

Time Lords were creatures of fairytales. Or at least it was what the Q’Uartar had been told ever since the crib. Once, they had been one of the mightiest races in the universe, benevolent watchers over time and space who studied all but never interfered. That was before the Daleks and before the Time Lords had become the most dangerous beings in the universe. And now, it was watching one fix its ship for no apparent reason and the Q’Uartar didn’t quite know how to ask the question that was on the tips of its tongue.

“I’ve released the boys,” it said instead, watching the Doctor tinker with the controls of the ship as he disabled the perception filter for testing. “Just like you told me to.”

There was a hint of an accusation in its voice. Why let some of the boys remain here on this doomed and dead planet when they could sail on to a better world? When they had the space to house so many more? It didn’t make sense, but the Doctor had insisted.

“Some might come back,” he replied as if he could sense its thoughts. The Doctor dropped his tool and turned took look at the Q’Uartar. The optimistic smile he had worn on his face faded instantly. “I’m sorry, could you-”

He made a gesture with his hand, waving it up and down in front of his face. The Q’Uartar frowned at him, not really knowing what he wanted it to do.

“You wearing Clara’s face is a little distracting,” the Doctor explained.

“Oh,” the Q’Uartar uttered immediately and shifted its appearance, hoping to find something that might please the Time Lord a little more. After all, he was helping to fix the ship and any distraction would be counterproductive.

But instead of seeming pleased, the Doctor’s frown only grew deeper.

“What?” the Q’Uartar enquired. “Your own face does not please you?”

The Doctor lifted his eyebrow and hesitated for a moment. “We Time Lords are shapeshifters, too, in a way. Only we do it once every few centuries and I’m afraid I haven’t grown fond of that face yet. Just stick to your natural shape.”

With a sigh, the Q’Uartar dropped the pretence and it felt as liberating as taking off one’s clothes. While it was used to taking on the shape of whatever race it was interacting with, nothing was quite as comfortable as its own skin. Most species were confused by the fluctuating nature, but the Time Lord didn’t seem to mind it at all. They truly were the mighty race from the fairytales.

“I’m going to need you to hold this lever while I go to the engine room and switch everything back on. It should all be working then,” the Doctor promised, nodding towards the large, black lever among the control buttons. “And I’m sorry for blowing it up in the first place.”

The Q’Uartar was already impressed with the Doctor’s skills and when he had gone out to fetch a few spare parts from his own ship, it had tried to question the purpose but understood nothing. But it was only the pilot, not the engineer. Without his help, the Q’Uartar would be stranded here forever, so it did as it was told and grabbed the lever.

“I’ll hold it,” it promised.

The Doctor gave a quick nod and vanished into the back of the ship while the Q’Uartar waited patiently, silently praying that everything was going to be alright.

When their world began to die, the evacuation had started quickly and one ship after the other, all of them filled to its capacity, had taken off, emptying the planet to take the people to their new home. The first reports had looked magnificent and the Q’Uartar felt its chest ache at the memory of the footage. All of its people were already there, settling into a new, wonderful world full of life and possibilities. This ship was one of the two last ones to leave and even before the crash, the Q’Uartar has missed its people terribly. Now, it could finally go back home.

Holding on tightly to the lever, the Q’Uartar let its gaze wander to the monitors and the readings looked good to the point that it was starting to feel hopeful again. However, a glance at the cameras startled it. At first, it thought the boys had come back follow the Q’Uartar on its journey, but the closer they came, the more it realised that it wasn’t the Croatoan boys. There were too many and they looked ready for a fight as they marched towards the ship, weapons raised and shouting angrily. These people hadn’t come to join them, they had come to attack. If only the Doctor hadn’t switched off the perception filter.

From one moment to the next, the Q’Uartar dropped the level and instead, jumped over to the other side of the control unit to flick a switch. With a sudden thud, the doors closed.

“What’s the matter?” the Doctor’s voice came from the engine room. “Everything’s gone dark again. I was just about to finish.”

His steps followed his voice after only seconds and while he approached the cockpit, the Q’Uartar thought of a way to explain to him what was happening - if only it understood.

“What’s wrong?” the Doctor demanded to know when he came to a halt next to the Q’Uartar. He sounded angry as well.

In response, it only pointed at the monitor that plainly showed what was going on, but as it soon turned out, explanations were no longer necessary when the banging on metal started and their angry voices could be heard on the inside of the ship.

“Ah,” the Doctor said, followed by a sharp hiss as he sucked the breath in through his teeth, “that is a problem.”

“We were offering them space on our ship,” the Q’Uartar said in disbelief. It couldn’t quite grasp why they would attack when their offer had been a friendly one and they posed no danger to the local people whatsoever. It was completely incomprehensible. “Why would they answer our offer with violence?”

The Time Lord uttered a long and heavy sigh, his eyes still fixed on the monitor and what was going on outside the ship. He seemed to contemplate his answer for a long moment, bitting down on his thumb as he was thinking.

“Look, I’m sorry, but I swear, not all humans are like that,” he said, his voice somewhere between apologetic and angry. “But then there are those who want to kill what they don’t understand.”

The Q’Uartar frowned. “We won’t take those with us to the new world.”

“Good thinking,” the Doctor remarked. “But what do we do about this? How strong is that door?”

“They won’t be able to breach it if that’s what you’re worried about,” it replied in all honesty. “But we won’t be able to take off with them right outside. It would scourge them.”

Once more, the Doctor took a deep breath and reached up to rub his hands over his face. The Q’Uartar didn’t fully understand the gesture, but it seemed to be one of despair. The Time Lord didn’t know what to do. And neither did the Q’Uartar.

“So, it’s a siege,” he concluded eventually. “We’ll have to wait it out. Eventually, they’ll retreat because they realise they can’t get inside.”

Something happened on the monitor as the angry crowd parted and both the Q’Uartar and the Doctor bent closer to get a better look. The people were mostly men, angry, waving sticks and old-fashioned pistols at the ship, but someone made his way through the crowd, pushing a smaller figure ahead of him. When the woman stepped closer, the Q’Uartar recognised her because she had worn her face before. It was the Doctor’s companion. Clara.

It glanced towards the Doctor and the expression on his face changed. He was furious.

“There are two ways this could go,” the tall, impressive man in front of the ship said, “either you open these doors or we kill your friend and take the ship by force.”

The Q’Uartar scoffed. “They can’t take it by force. The hull is impenetrable.”

“They don’t have to,” the Time Lord replied instantly and when he reached for the controls, the Q’Uartar had no time to stop him from opening the doors. “I’m not going to risk Clara’s life under any circumstances.”

It wanted to protest, to tell him that their work was more important than a single life, but the look on the Doctor’s face made it think better of it. The doors opened with a rattling sound and on the monitor, they could clearly see as the angry mob entered the ship. It was over.


	24. Chapter 23

The mob was furious, shouting as they marched, and waving their guns and sticks in the air. Clara thought that any moment now, a shot would be fired by pure accident because of their agitated state. She stumbled more than she walked, her balance disturbed because her arms were tied together on her back. The rope cut through her skin like a blunt knife - slowly but relentlessly - and the occasional push from the shouting men didn’t help at all. The worst part, however, was that Geoffrey was leading this insane procession. Without him, the colonists would never find the ship and she half hoped that once they arrived, the villagers wouldn’t see a thing and move on because of the Q’Uartar’s perception filter. However, as they pushed her forward, Clara soon realised that she had no such luck. The impressive ship sat there in plain view.

“What kind of magic is that?” Governor Johnson asked, his voice filled with both awe and fear at the same time. Behind him, the procession came to an abrupt halt.

“It’s not magic!” Clara insisted instantly and took a step in the governor’s direction. “It’s tech more advanced than you could ever imagine. And they could use that tech to help you! All you need to do is call off the attack!”

The governor shot around and glared at her for a while, pondering his reply. Clara knew in her heart that he would never give in, but that didn’t stop her from hoping.

“Or they could use it to kill us all,” he argued eventually. His brows were furrowed and his gaze darkened even more. “I am responsible for these people and I will do everything in my power to protect them from whatever might do them harm. Do you hear me? They’re _my_ responsibility, not yours, not the Doctor’s, not anyone else’s. And I will do what I think is best for their survival.”

Clara took a deep breath, ready to reply, ready to tell him that he was making a mistake and that at least, he should listen to the council of others, but she never got the chance before Governor Johnson turned around and started addressing his people.

“Listen up, all of you,” he said, his voice loud and determined, “why did we come here?”

The noise of the crowd abated abruptly, growing quieter until it was only a murmur, hushed voices coming to an end of their conversation. The men seemed confused for a moment, unsure of whether Johnson demanded their reply or not. Then, he answered for them.

“We came here to start a new life,” Johnson determined. “We came here to build our homes, to farm our land, to raise our children in the name of the Queen, didn’t we?”

The mob agreed with a cheer.

“We didn’t come here to give it all up at the first sight of trouble! We didn’t come here to let them take it away from us! We came here to defend what is ours!”

The cheering grew louder and Clara rolled her eyes at them, just resisting the temptation to tell them nothing here actually belonged to them, but she knew that anything she said would fall on deaf ears.

“Attack!” Johnson yelled and the crowd shouted with him before Clara was once again pushed towards the ship.

The ship’s doors were closed and even though the colonists had brought every man they had, Clara hoped that their technology was strong and clever enough to withstand the attack. As long as they didn’t breach the hull, the Doctor inside the ship stood a chance. Given enough time, Clara knew that he would be able to fix this mess. He always did.

As the men pushed forward, hammering against the metal, Clara took a step back. Maybe, with a bit of luck, she could slip away without anyone noticing. She could go to the TARDIS and… nothing. She couldn’t do anything, not while her hands were tied, but she could get away and try to find help.

While she was still pondering her options, a rough hand grabbed her arm and pulled her along and when Clara looked up, she noticed Johnson’s angry face as he moved her towards the entrance of the ship.

“Hey,” Clara complained loudly, “let me go!”

Governor Johnson did no such thing. Instead, he made his way through the crowd, pushing everyone aside as he strode towards the entrance as if he was sure it would open for him. It never would. The Doctor was on the inside and he would never allow anything to happen to the Q’Uartar. Whatever Johnson was trying, it was useless.

“There are two ways this could go,” Johnson shouted at the closed door above him while his grip tightened on Clara’s arm. He was probably hoping that someone on the inside was actually listening, “either you open these doors or we kill your friend and take the ship by force.”

Clara’s heart sank into her boots in an instance when the realisation hit her. She wasn’t afraid of dying, not anymore, not after facing death so many times while travelling with the Doctor. But she was afraid of what the Doctor might do to anyone who tried to harm her.

A long, terrible moment passed in which nothing happened and Clara could feel her heartbeat as it pounded against her chest. Right now, she found it impossible to predict what was going to happen.

Then, with a loud, agonising creaking sound, the door of the ship slid open and she realised that they had lost. Governor Johnson had beaten them.

Clara braced herself for the imminent attack, trying not to think about what was going to happen to the Doctor or the Q’Uartar, trying to find a solution that didn’t involve people getting hurt when she suddenly heard it. It was a quiet sound at first, hardly audible among the excited crowd, but once she had noticed it, the sound grew louder. It was the sound of approaching footsteps and the longer it went on, the harder it became for Clara to tell just how many people there were. Had the women come to join them? No, there were more than that. Much more.  
When Johnson and his men finally noticed them, too, it was too late to do anything about it. The Croatoans had already surrounded them, outnumbering and overpowering the colonists despite their more powerful weapons. An entire horde of Natives had come, pointing their spears and arrows straight at Johnson.

The one who eventually stepped forward was a man Clara recognised and the sight of his face caused a weight to drop off her shoulders.

“Lay down your weapons,” Chief spoke calmly but determinedly, “and I promise nothing will happen to you.”

Clara looked around and waited for their reactions, but she noticed it instantly in the look in their eyes. They were thirty men and they didn’t stand a chance against the entire tribe of the Croatoans and the friends they had brought along. She figured that somehow, they had gathered all the local tribes and even though she didn’t understand why, Clara was glad that they had. One after the other, the colonists started laying down their sticks and their pistols. All but Johnson.

“If you think I am going to surrender to the enemy, you are mistaken!” he hissed at Chief. “Pick up your weapons, you cowards. They only have spears, we have pistols!”

Looking around the crowd, Clara spotted Geoffrey once again and he still wore that apologetic look on his face. He was the only one still clutching his weapon.

 _Don’t you dare_ , Clara tried to tell him with her eyes, but when he struck, he didn’t strike against the Q’Uartar or the Croatoans. He hit Johnson straight across the back of the head before the governor fell to the ground. It was over at last.


	25. Epilogue

The ship was crowded to the point that it was almost impossible to make her way through the masses and back towards the cockpit to where the Doctor and the Q’Uartar were waiting for her. When Clara had finally managed it, she noticed that they were already in the company of Chief and Geoffrey and all of them were so deep in conversation that she felt a little guilty for disturbing them.

“They’re all settling in,” Clara announced. “All of them. All the colonists, men, women and children and a handful of the Croatoans.”

Even as she said the words, Clara found it hard to believe that it was actually happening. Somehow, between the arrival of the Croatoans and this moment, the Doctor had seized the opportunity to sit everyone down and explained to them what was happening and where they were going. Despite what had happened, the Q’Uartar had offered once again to take everyone with them. On the ship’s screens, it had shown them the planet this ship was headed to and one after the other had agreed to come with. Even Clara had almost been tempted to step into one of those pods just to see that paradise, but now, the ship was booked solid. There wasn’t a single stasis chamber left. In fact, for everyone else to go, it meant to leave one person behind. Luckily for them, the Doctor had had a suitable idea.

“Good,” the Doctor replied to Clara and then turned back towards Chief. “Will you be able to handle him?”

The Time Lord nodded towards a bundle on the cockpit floor. Governor Johnson was tied up and gagged even though he still tried to complain about his unjust treatment.

“We will treat him like one of our own,” Chief promised solemnly. That meant that Johnson would be punished accordingly but fairly, but Clara had no doubt that the worst punishment for him would be to depend on the very people he hated. Naturally, the Doctor had come up with that idea to teach him a lesson.

“And you,” the Doctor continued, now speaking to the Q’Uartar, “thank you for helping these people. Not all of them deserve it, but thank you.”

The alien nodded. “Kindness is the core value of our people. We will teach it to them.”

The Doctor smiled in reply. “I can’t wait to see the outcome.”

Clara smiled as well, more than happy with the recent development after everything that had happened.

“At some point, people will come looking for them,” the Doctor went on and suddenly, his voice had taken on a grave tone.

“Not to worry,” Chief said, “we’ve left them a message to come and find us.”

Still, the serious expression didn’t leave the Doctor’s face. “More will come,” he told Chief, “many more. And they’ll spread over the entire continent eventually. Not all will be friendly towards you.”

Chief nodded but didn’t say anything.

Then, the Q’Uartar stepped in. “We’re ready to take off. I’m sorry, but there is no more space for you two,” it said to the Doctor and Clara.

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” the Doctor replied with a dismissive gesture, “I have a ship of my own.”

“It was a privilege to have met a Time Lord,” it said and nodded in a way of saying goodbye. The Doctor and Clara nodded back.

* * *

The TARDIS landed with a thud and when the spinning part of the console unit came to a halt and the flashing lights went off, Clara realised just how tired she was. She stumbled out of the doors and let herself fall down on her sofa only a couple of steps later. Had it always been this soft and comfortable or was it just the impression she had after her recent adventure?  
The Doctor followed after her, carefully stepping into her living room as if he still wasn’t entirely sure whether she wanted him there. It was funny how sometimes he seemed so insecure about their boundaries when, on other occasions, he just parked his time machine in her bedroom while she was fast asleep.

“So,” he began, “mystery solved.”

Clara grinned at him in reply. “The Lost Colony,” she chuckled, “just be glad I’m not a history teacher because I doubt I could keep all of that stuff from my students.”

The Doctor scoffed. “I don’t think you’d be a history teacher for very long if you started telling them the colonists were abducted by aliens.”

She laughed. “True.”

They were silent for a long moment and Clara started wondering whether he would leave straight away or stay for a chat like he sometimes did. Even though the Doctor was an alien, there were moments during which they shared a completely ordinary friendship. It was those moments that Clara treasured just as much as she did the adventures.

“Do you think it worked?” she found herself asking him. “Do you think the colonists lived happily ever after with the Q’Uartar?”

The Doctor shrugged. “I don’t know,” he replied truthfully. “But I supposed we could check in on them next week?”

Clara smiled. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

“So, uh, see you next Wednesday?”

The Doctor shuffled his feet nervously and Clara wasn’t sure whether it was because he wanted to stay or because he wanted nothing more than to get back into his box and fly off. There was only one way to find out.

“How about I order pizza and we watch a movie before you go?” she suggested hopefully.

“How about you order pizza and we don’t watch any of your silly human movies?”

Clara chuckled and patted the empty spot next to her on the sofa. “Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thanks to everyone who read and commented on this fic :) I love you all!
> 
> Since I'm not overly active in the Doctor Who fandom at the moment and the Whouffaldi fandom has kind of lost its enthusiasm, I currently have no DW/Whouffaldi fic in progress. HOWEVER, if you still love my writing and happen to be interested in Harry Potter as well, I have good news for you. After re-reading the books this year, I decided to give a little (I say little, that's a big, fat lie) HP fanfic a go and I've been working on that for a few weeks now. It's not finished yet, but I'd love to see you again for my take on a different fandom when it's done :)


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